Management and practices of corporate social responsibility in Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 scenario led to new ways of buying, selling, and consuming, a triad that lead to emerging voluntary bets on the part of companies for social, economic, and environmental improvement that legitimizes their actions in the new context. This mentioned process in situations such as confinement, work at home, interaction with diverse teams, and even the transformation of productive practices in the face of the scarcity of raw materials led to a behavioral perspective of corporate social responsibility (CSR) focused on the adaptative capacity of the dynamics of the context. Under this understanding, this research characterizes the management and practices of CSR during the pandemic in Latin America. Methodologically, the 200 best-positioned companies in the Merco Ranking were studied, allowing interaction of companies, leaders, and corporate responsibility and governance. The 'social contribution" variable was analyzed with eight crossed variables and contrasted with the information disclosed by the organizations have studied regarding management and CSR practices in the period of the pandemic. The selected countries were Uruguay and Colombia, considering their extreme geographic location on the continent, the disparity in GDP, and the difference in state policies to manage the pandemic. After inferring the research hypothesis, it was possible to determine that the companies studied, despite the territorial disparity, geographical aspects, the number of inhabitants, and separate management of the pandemic, both in Colombia and Uruguay, adopted several measures to face the crisis produced by the COVID-19. Additionally, a social contribution has in both markets has been made, where 92% of Uruguayan companies and 99% of Colombia companies have developed new business models. The mentioned models include digitization of operations, delivery of food baskets and personal hygiene, technological contributions, and among others, donations of supplies and medical pieces of equipment. The companies that contributed the most are located at the top of the ranking in their countries and mostly belong to the industrial sector, a sector that in principle is most affected by the pandemic. In addition, the longest-standing companies made greater contributions. All of those studied presented sustainability reports using international standards and indicators and focused on social and environmental contributions since the beginning of the pandemic.