"Corporate Sustainability" or "Corporate Social Responsibility"? A Comparative Study of Spanish and Latin American Companies' Websites. Issue 4 (December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pérez Cañizares, Pilar
• Is Part Of: Business and professional communication quarterly. Volume 84:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 361
• Page End: 385
• Publication Date: 2021-12
• Subjects: corporate communication in Spanish -- web-based CSR -- nonfinancial disclosure -- corporate social responsibility -- sustainability -- evolution of CSR/sustainability communication; Business education -- United States -- Periodicals; Communication in management -- United States -- Periodicals; English language -- Business English -- Periodicals; 658.450715
• DOI: 10.1177/23294906211023799
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2329-4906

Abstract

This study aims to compare how leading companies in Spain and in Spanish-speaking Latin America communicate corporate social responsibility or sustainability on their web pages. For this purpose, the pages of 68 companies were examined to establish the accessibility of such topics and to trace how their prominence and wording had evolved over time. The results show a trend toward greater uniformity in both Spain and Latin America, with corporate social responsibility/sustainability discourse gaining in prominence and "responsibility"-related terms being gradually replaced by those related to "sustainability." Various cases hint that changes in terminology may be unrelated to any clear distinction between both terms.