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The meaning of corporate social performance in seaports: the managers' perspective

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-20, 16:04 authored by Eduardo BatalhaEduardo Batalha, Shu-Ling ChenShu-Ling Chen, Pateman, H, Wei ZhangWei Zhang
Corporate social performance (CSP) is defined in the literature as how corporations establish a link between their social responsibility principles, their responsiveness processes development and the social policy produced. Developed as a concept in the early 1990s, there is little agreement about its practical application in workday activities inside corporations. Reasons for this lack of alignment are not conclusively established, but one possibility is in the need for the adaptation of the concept to the business context. This adaptation inevitably demands an understanding about the subject by those responsible for developing it inside corporations. Seaports present an area of potential application for this adaption because they are infrastructure assets with the power to shape the social arrangement existing in a region. Therefore, investigating how CSP is understood in this sector can contribute to a better relationship between societies and businesses and the development of more effective policies in the social dimension of business. This paper reports the understanding of CSP held by managers of seaports in Brazil. Using content and thematic analysis, this paper analyses data collected via telephone interviews with twenty-eight Brazilian senior seaport managers interpreting the meanings of CSP. The results revealed that managers expressed the importance of CSP for their business strategy by linking it to four core themes under their management control and one theme dependant on regulators' definition. The findings present an adherence between theory and empirical data, suggesting an improvement about the role of social responsibilities for CSP implementation in seaports.

History

Publication title

WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs

Volume

19

Pagination

183-203

ISSN

1651-436X

Department/School

School of Information and Communication Technology

Publisher

Springer

Place of publication

Germany

Rights statement

Copyright World Maritime University 2020

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Port infrastructure and management

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