Responsabilidade socioambiental empresarial: uma análise do retorno financeiro dos investimentos socioambientais no Brasil

Abstract

A proposta deste trabalho é ampliar o estudo sobre o tema da Responsabilidade Socioambiental Empresarial tanto no panorama teórico como também no empírico. No contexto teórico, este estudo procurou fazer uma revisão das argumentações tanto contrárias como a favor de um comportamento social e ambientalmente mais responsável por parte das empresas. Foi realizada uma análise da evolução do modelo de gestão das empresas, que cada vez mais passa a incorporar as questões sociais e ambientais na agenda das decisões estratégicas. Esta evolução tem sido motivada principalmente pelos problemas ambientais causados pelo aquecimento global. Os resultados obtidos por este estudo indicaram que há correlação positiva entre o desempenho socioambiental e o desempenho financeiro das empresas. A variável socioambiental mais relevante neste resultado é o investimento social interno, que se mostrou fortemente correlacionada com o indicador financeiro contábil ROA (Return on Assets). Quanto à análise de causalidade, os resultados também indicaram que o investimento social interno tem efeito positivo sobre a variável ROA.

The main purpose of this dissertation is to expand the debate over the topic of Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSR), in both theoretical and empirical perspectives. From the theoretical perspective, this study aimed to do a review of previous researches, for those in favor or against of the involvements of firms to address the social and environmental issues. This study analyzed the theme of CSR under the perspective of the corporate management evolution model, which started from a philanthropic model to what we see today as an important strategic decision tool. The climate change, caused by the global warming has been driven the evolution of the CSR model. From the empirical perspective, the main goal was to investigate the correlation between firm’s financial performance and social/environmental performance for Brazilian companies from 2001 to 2007, using available information provided by the Braziian Institute of Social and Economic Analysis (IBASE). Two types of panel data econometric models were used. The fixed effects model was used to investigate the existence of correlations between the financial indicators and the social/environmental indicators. Additionally, a panel data IV model was used to investigate causality and try to answer the question whether the social/environmental performance has a positive or negative impact on the firm’s financial performance. Results show a positive relationship between corporate social/environmental performance and financial performance. The internal social investment is the most relevant social/environmental variable in this result, since it is positively correlated with the financial performance indicator represented by the variable return on assets (ROA). The causality analysis showed also that the internal social investment has a positive effect on the corporate financial performance.