Sustainable strategies and corporate social responsibility in the Italian fisheries companies
Debora Scarpato
Department of Economic and Legal Studies, Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Gennaro Civero
Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy
Correspondence
Gennaro Civero, Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy.
Email: gennaro.civero@uniparthenope.it
Search for more papers by this authorVincenzo Rusciano
Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorMarcello Risitano
Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorDebora Scarpato
Department of Economic and Legal Studies, Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Gennaro Civero
Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy
Correspondence
Gennaro Civero, Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy.
Email: gennaro.civero@uniparthenope.it
Search for more papers by this authorVincenzo Rusciano
Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorMarcello Risitano
Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, Parthenope University of Naples, Naples, Italy
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
The fisheries industry is currently characterized by a social context where levels of competitiveness and economic development must continue to grow, while simultaneously ensuring commitment to and guarantee of levels of environmental and social sustainability. Such businesses, demonstrate an elevated sensitivity to the territory in which they operate, voluntarily implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies in a sustainable development and stakeholder engagement perspective. This study will analyse—through an empirical analysis developed in the Italian context—the level of sustainable strategies and CSR of the large buyers in the fisheries industry, as well as willingness to invest to create a sustainable product. Using multivariate statistical techniques, such as principal component analysis and cluster analysis, we will identify the various groups of buyers in the adoption of sustainable strategies and CSR practices in their business.
REFERENCES
- Alfnes, F. (2017). Selling only sustainable seafood: Attitudes toward public regulation and retailer policies. Marine Policy, 78, 74–79.
- Amato, M., Fasanelli, R., & Riverso, R. (2019). Emotional profiling for segmenting consumers: The case of household food waste. Calitatea, 20(S2), 27–32.
- Asche, F., Bellemare, M. F., Roheim, C., Smith, M. D., & Tveteras, S. (2015). Fair enough? Food security and the international trade of seafood. World Development, 67, 151–160.
- Attfield, R. (2006). Environmental ethics and global sustainability. Environmental Ethics and International Policy, pp. 69–87.
- Bailey, M., Bush, S. R., Miller, A., & Kochen, M. (2016). The role of traceability in transforming seafood governance in the global south. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 18, 25–32.
- Bailey, M., & Egels-Zandén, N. (2016). Transparency for just seafood systems. Solutions, 7(4), 66–73.
- Bailey, M., Packer, H., Schiller, L., Tlusty, M., & Swartz, W. (2018). The role of corporate social responsibility in creating a Seussian world of seafood sustainability. Fish and Fisheries, 19(5), 782–790.
- Balmer, J. M., Fukukawa, K., & Gray, E. R. (2007). The nature and management of ethical corporate identity: A commentary on corporate identity, corporate social responsibility, and ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 76(1), 7–15.
- Behrens, J. H., Vedovato, G. M., Cervato-Mancuso, A. M., & Bastos, D. H. (2015). Social representations of safety in food services. Food Research International, 74, 324–328.
- Bentivoglio, D., Finco, A., Bucci, G., & Zolin, M. B. (2018). Asian Palm Oil Production and European Vegetable Oil Market: What Can We Learn in Terms of Sustainability? B. Andreosso-O'Callaghan J. Jaussaud & M. Zolin In Asian Nations and Multinationals (pp. 83–99). Cham: Palgrave Pivot.
10.1007/978-3-030-00913-7_6 Google Scholar
- Carroll, A. B. (1999). Corporate social responsibility evolution of a definitional construct. Business & Society, 38(3), 268–295.
10.1177/000765039903800303 Google Scholar
- Cash, D. W., Clark, W. C., Alcock, F., Dickson, N. M., Eckley, N., Guston, D. H., & Mitchell, R. B. (2003). Knowledge systems for sustainable development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100(14), 8086–8091.
- Cattivelli, V. (2012). Sustainable governance of urban-rural relations: Examples of European good practices. SSRN 2386629.
- Cerciello, M., Agovino, M., & Garofalo, A. (2019). Estimating urban food waste at the local level: Are good practices in food consumption persistent? Economia Politica, 36(3), 863–886.
- Christensen, L. T., Morsing, M., & Cheney, G. (2008). Corporate communications: Convention, complexity, and critique, California, USA: Sage.
10.4135/9781446214466 Google Scholar
- Christmann, P., & Taylor, G. (2006). Firm self-regulation through international certifiable standards: Determinants of symbolic versus substantive implementation. Journal of International Business Studies, 37(6), 863–878.
- Civero, G., Rusciano, V., & Scarpato, D. (2017). Consumer behaviour and corporate social responsibility: An empirical study of expo 2015. British Food Journal, 119(8), 1826–1838.
- Civero, G., Rusciano, V., & Scarpato, D. (2018). Orientation of Agri-food companies to CSR and consumer perception: A survey on two Italian companies. Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition & Agriculture, 9(2), 134–141.
- Commission of the European Communities, European Commission (2001). Directorate General for Enlargement. Information, & Interinstitutional Relations Unit. 2001 Regular Report on Poland's Progress Towards Accession. European Commission, Directorate General for Enlargement Information and Interinstitutional Relations Unit.
- Crane, A., Matten, D., Glozer, S., & Spence, L. (2019). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
10.1093/hebz/9780198810070.001.0001 Google Scholar
- Cummins, A. (2004). The marine stewardship council: A multi-stakeholder approach to sustainable fishing. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 11(2), 85–94.
10.1002/csr.56 Google Scholar
- Dahlsrud, A. (2008). How corporate social responsibility is defined: An analysis of 37 definitions. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 15(1), 1–13.
- Davis, K. (1960). Can business afford to ignore social responsibilities? California Management Review, 2(3), 70–76.
- Di Talia, E., Simeone, M., & Scarpato, D. (2019). Consumer behaviour types in household food waste. Journal of Cleaner Production, 214, 166–172.
- Doh, J. P., Howton, S. D., Howton, S. W., & Siegel, D. S. (2010). Does the market respond to an endorsement of social responsibility? The role of institutions, information, and legitimacy. Journal of Management, 36(6), 1461–1485.
- D'Oronzio, M. A., & Licciardo, F. (2017). La blue economy in Basilicata. Risorse locali per lo sviluppo regionale. Italian Review of Agricultural Economics, 72(1), 45–61.
- Elkington, J. (2013). Enter the triple bottom line. In The triple bottom line (pp. 23–38). New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
- Feller, J. (2015). CSR strategies in international business. Concepts and theories for a competitive edge, Hamburg, Germany: Anchor Academic Publishing.
- Freeman, I., & Hasnaoui, A. (2011). The meaning of corporate social responsibility: The vision of four nations. Journal of Business Ethics, 100(3), 419–443.
- Freeman, R. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Marshall, MA: Pitman.
10.1057/palgrave.crr.1540226 Google Scholar
- Freeman, R. E. (2010). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
10.1017/CBO9781139192675 Google Scholar
- Freeman, R. E., & Phillips, R. A. (2002). Stakeholder theory: A libertarian defense. Business Ethics Quarterly, 12(3), 331–349.
- Friedman, M. (1970). A Friedman doctrine: The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. The New York Times Magazine, 13(1970), 32–33.
- Friedman, M. (2007). The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. In Corporate ethics and corporate governance (pp. 173–178). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.
10.1007/978-3-540-70818-6_14 Google Scholar
- García-Sánchez, I. M., & Noguera-Gámez, L. (2017). Integrated reporting and stakeholder engagement: The effect on information asymmetry. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 24(5), 395–413.
- Gatto, A. (2020). A pluralistic approach to economic and business sustainability: A critical meta-synthesis of foundations, metrics, and evidence of human and local development. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27, 1525–1539.
- Gregory, A. (2007). Involving stakeholders in developing corporate brands: The communication dimension. Journal of Marketing Management, 23(1–2), 59–73.
10.1362/026725707X178558 Google Scholar
- Guedhami, O., Nash, R. C., & Patel, A. (2016). New evidence on the role of the media in corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 139(1), 1–29.
- Gusmerotti, N. M., Testa, F., Macellari, M., & Frey, M. (2019). Corporate social responsibility embeddedness through a social network analysis: The case of an Italian multiutility company. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(2), 455–469.
- Invernizzi, E., & Romenti, S. (2011). Strategic communication and decision-making processes toward the communication oriented organisation. Academicus, 3, 12.
- Kathijotes, N. (2013). Keynote: Blue economy-environmental and behavioral aspects towards sustainable coastal development. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 101, 7–13.
10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.07.173 Google Scholar
- Kittinger, J., Teh, L., Allison, E. H., Bennett, N. J., Crowder, L. B., Finkbeiner, E. M., & Wilhelm, T. A. (2017). Committing to socially responsible seafood. Science, 356(6341), 912–913.
- Lopatta, K., Jaeschke, R., & Chen, C. (2017). Stakeholder engagement and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance: International evidence. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 24(3), 199–209.
- Maignan, I., & Ferrell, O. C. (2000). Measuring corporate citizenship in two countries: The case of the United States and France. Journal of Business Ethics, 23(3), 283–297.
- Manetti, G. (2011). The quality of stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting: Empirical evidence and critical points. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 18(2), 110–122.
- Martín-de Castro, G., Amores-Salvadó, J., & Navas-López, J. E. (2016). Environmental management systems and firm performance: Improving firm environmental policy through stakeholder engagement. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 23(4), 243–256.
- Moir, L. (2001). What do we mean by corporate social responsibility? Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society, 1(2), 16–22.
10.1108/EUM0000000005486 Google Scholar
- Olson, J., Clay, P. M., & da Silva, P. P. (2014). Putting the seafood in sustainable food systems. Marine Policy, 43, 104–111.
- Packer, H., Swartz, W., Ota, Y., & Bailey, M. (2019). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of the largest seafood suppliers in the wild capture fisheries sector: From vision to action. Sustainability, 11(8), 2254.
- Park, B. I., & Ghauri, P. N. (2015). Determinants influencing CSR practices in small and medium sized MNE subsidiaries: A stakeholder perspective. Journal of World Business, 50(1), 192–204.
- Peng, C. W. (2020). The role of business strategy and CEO compensation structure in driving corporate social responsibility: Linkage towards a sustainable development perspective. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 27(2), 1028–1039.
- Pollach, I., Johansen, T. S., Ellerup Nielsen, A., & Thomsen, C. (2012). The integration of CSR into corporate communication in large European companies. Journal of Communication Management, 16(2), 204–216.
10.1108/13632541211217605 Google Scholar
- Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2011). Creating shared value. Harvard Business Review, 89(1/2), 62–77.
- Prado-Lorenzo, J. M., Gallego-Alvarez, I., & Garcia-Sanchez, I. M. (2009). Stakeholder engagement and corporate social responsibility reporting: The ownership structure effect. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 16(2), 94–107.
- Rusciano, V., Civero, G., & Scarpato, D. (2018). Urban gardens in the city of Naples: An empirical analysis. Calitatea, 19(S1), 436–442.
- Rusciano, V., Civero, G., & Scarpato, D. (2020). Social and ecological high influential factors in community gardens innovation: An empirical survey in Italy. Sustainability, 12, 4651.
- Rusciano, V., Scarpato, D., & Civero, G. (2019). Territorial social responsibility: A cluster analysis on a case study. Calitatea, 20(S2), 543–548.
- Scarpato, D., Rotondo, G., Simeone, M., Gómez, A., & Gutiérrez, P. (2017). How can food companies attract the consumer concerned about food safety? A logit model analysis in Spain. British Food Journal, 119(8), 1705–1717.
- Siano, A., Siglioccolo, M., & Vollero, A. (2015). Corporate communication management: Accrescere la reputazione per attrarre risorse, Torino, Italia: G Giappichelli Editore.
- Silver, J. J., Gray, N. J., Campbell, L. M., Fairbanks, L. W., & Gruby, R. L. (2015). Blue economy and competing discourses in international oceans governance. The Journal of Environment, Development, 24(2), 135–160.
- Smith, M. D., Roheim, C. A., Crowder, L. B., Halpern, B. S., Turnipseed, M., Anderson, J. L., … Liguori, L. A. (2010). Sustainability and global seafood. Science, 327(5967), 784–786.
- Smith-Godfrey, S. (2016). Defining the blue economy. Maritime Affairs: Journal of the National Maritime Foundation of India, 12(1), 58–64.
10.1080/09733159.2016.1175131 Google Scholar
- A. Tukker, & U. Tischner (Eds.). (2017). New business for old Europe: Product-service development, competitiveness, and sustainability. Routledge, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
10.4324/9781351280600 Google Scholar
- Verbeke, W., Vanhonacker, F., Sioen, I., Van Camp, J., & De Henauw, S. (2007). Perceived importance of sustainability and ethics related to fish: A consumer behavior perspective. Ambio: A Journal of the Human Environment, 36(7), 580–586.
10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[580:PIOSAE]2.0.CO;2 Google Scholar
- Wang, O., & Somogyi, S. (2019). Consumer adoption of sustainable shellfish in China: Effects of psychological factors and segmentation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 206, 966–975.
- Weber, M. (2009). The theory of social and economic organization, New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
- Worm, B. (2016). Averting a global fisheries disaster. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113(18), 4895–4897.
- Wu, S. I., & Chen, J. H. (2015). The influence of CSR on brand relevant aspects. Journal of Management and Sustainability, 5, 17.
10.5539/jms.v5n3p17 Google Scholar