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Social innovation has been attracting attention in the literature and the practice field due to its intention to create social value. However, the social innovation process is still poorly studied and is marked by several disagreements in the existing models, often built from data coming from developed countries. So, the focus of this study is to answer the following research question: how is the social innovation process configured in a developing context?

The study investigated three cases of Brazilian social innovation processes through a qualitative approach. The authors also use the institutional levels perspectives to analyse the cases.

The main findings indicate that the social innovation process comprises five phases and occurs between the micro, meso and macro institutional levels. Besides, the social innovation process relies on the participation of different partners, in a non-sequential process, with the possibility of returning from one stage to another and is evaluated continuously over time.

This study may be useful for social entrepreneurs and their teams in organisations that generate social innovations (such as social enterprises) to understand how well-established initiatives have organised themselves over time. Public policymakers may also use the insights provided to create more favourable environments to create new social innovation initiatives and expand the existing ones.

The characteristics of the social innovation process revealed in this study contributes to the advancement of the area, mainly because it considers the perspective of institutional levels and is based on data from a developing country.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the commitment to a corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice developed by Company of Urbanization of Curitiba S/A – URBS, located in Curitiba (Paraná), Brazil. The paper observes the CSR practice developed by the company.

A descriptive study that used a qualitative approach was held. The research strategy of the research used consisted of a case study. Data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews, documental analysis and direct observation. These data were further analyzed through the content analysis’ perspective.

The organization in question, even without obligation, develops a CSR project that contributes to the formation and awareness of young citizens, comprising ethical, voluntary, economical and legal responsibilities.

Because of the fact that this is a single case study, the results cannot be generalized, representing only the reality of this case.

The practical implications of this study lies in the attention toward training of students of public schools, especially in aspects of buses and services usage and care for public equity, factors that even contribute to citizenship and the formation of better people and professionals. This will, in the future, contribute to form citizens that are more aware and who will tend to contribute to adequate usage of the transportation system as a whole, resulting in savings for the organization.

The project analyzed in this study contributes to the formation of better citizens regarding the respect and ethical responsibilities they develop toward the public transportation system.

This paper demonstrates the commitment to a CSC practice made by a mixed-economy organization that develops this practice to contribute to the formation of citizens of the city. The value of this paper lies in the fact that it shows how CSR practices can be aligned with other practices of organizations, contributing to all stakeholders involved in it.

This study aimed to investigate the role of the country's institutional quality on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of its companies.

Over a four-year period (2016–2019), the study examined the ESG performance of 412 organizations situated in 19 countries. ESG performance was the dependent variable, and the independent variables were rule of law, economic freedom, education index and international trade freedom. These factors described the institutional quality of countries in the authors’ study.

The findings reveal that institutional quality has a major impact on ESG performance. Companies engage in more ESG practices when they operate in countries with greater economic freedom and international trade freedom. The authors corroborated the core assumption of institutional theory (IT), which argues that organizational behavior is determined by the country's institutional setting.

The findings, like all research, should be interpreted with caution. The authors’ research focused solely on large energy corporations. As a result, the conclusions cannot be applied to small companies or other industries. ESG performance can also be measured using different datasets.

If managers want their companies to perform better in terms of ESG, the authors recommend that they form a CSR committee and sign the Global Compact. This study may be valuable to international policymakers because they can underline that greater economic freedom, better education and greater international trade freedom all promote higher ESG performance.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, nearly all of research explores the relationship between ESG and financial performance. As a result, this study built on past research by investigating how national aspects affect corporate ESG performance.

This study aims to examine the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on social responsibility in Latin America.

The hypotheses were tested using a sample of 371 companies based in eight Latin American countries, resulting in 4,823 observations.

The results show that more independent boards, with greater female representation and the presence of a sustainability committee lead companies to behave more ethically. The findings indicate that corporate governance mechanisms play an important role for companies to engage in social responsibility actions.

Governments can use these findings to draft regulations that encourage Latin American companies to disclose more non-financial information and to support a more diverse board composition. The evidence shows that the quality of national governance plays a key role in times of crisis by encouraging more responsible behavior by companies.

This study broadens the scope of application of agency theory and the resource-based view by demonstrating that the board of directors is a unique composition and that organizations must understand how to balance external and internal members on their boards in order to achieve higher social and environmental performance.

Este estudio tiene como objetivo examinar el efecto de los mecanismos de gobierno corporativo en la responsabilidad social en América Latina.

Las hipótesis se probaron utilizando una muestra de 371 empresas con sede en 8 países de América Latina, lo que resultó en 4.823 observaciones.

Los resultados muestran que directorios más independientes, con mayor representación femenina y la presencia de un comité de sustentabilidad llevan a las empresas a comportarse de manera más ética. Los hallazgos indican que los mecanismos de gobierno corporativo juegan un papel importante para que las empresas realicen acciones de responsabilidad social.

Este estudio amplía el alcance de la aplicación de la teoría de la agencia y la visión basada en los recursos al demostrar que la junta directiva es una composición única y que las organizaciones deben entender cómo equilibrar los miembros externos e internos en sus juntas para lograr un mayor impacto social. y desempeño ambiental.

Los gobiernos pueden usar estos hallazgos para redactar regulaciones que alienten a las empresas latinoamericanas a divulgar más información no financiera y apoyar una composición de directorio más diversa. Nuestra evidencia muestra que la calidad de la gobernanza nacional juega un papel clave en tiempos de crisis al fomentar un comportamiento más responsable por parte de las empresas.

This study aims to investigate the effect of innovation on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and, consequently, its influence on the economic and financial performance of companies.

A quantitative and descriptive research was carried out based on secondary data from the Refinitiv Eikon^® database, using the panel data regression technique, considering the constructs: innovation, ESG performance and economic and financial performance.

The results showed that companies that tend to invest more financial resources in R&D are more likely to have higher ESG performance. In addition, companies that have higher ESG performance tend to have higher economic and financial performance.

Managers may consider investing more resources in R&D to achieve superior ESG performance. They should be aware that ESG is a strategic tool for creating financial and nonfinancial value for the organization. More than the traditional preparation of a financial report, stakeholders demand another type of information: ESG information.

The results confirm the basis of Stakeholder Theory, showing that the companies that meet the needs of all stakeholders tend to have greater economic and financial performance. ESG practices can include keeping employees motivated to work, improved corporate image in the eyes of customers, more satisfied suppliers and community and environment aligned with management. Therefore, these ESG initiatives are instrumental in protecting organizational objectives as well as increasing shareholder value.

This paper aims to analyze the main challenges faced by two business schools and a higher education institution when implementing education for sustainability (EfS). Also, it seeks to identify facilitating elements that contribute to minimizing or eliminating barriers faced by these institutions when implementing EfS.

A qualitative research approach is used of a descriptive nature and a multicase study is used as research strategy. Data were collected through interviews with the individuals responsible for EfS process in the institutions studied and were analyzed by the content analysis technique.

The data allowed identifying new challenges, such as those related to the governance of educational institutions, as well as divergent values of higher education institutions (HEIs) and of EfS.

The number of cases here analyzed does not allow generalization of the results.

The discussion of the empirical data with the literature has provided some insights regarding good practices and recommendations for educational institutions to minimize the challenges faced in EfS process.

The identification of facilitating elements to mitigate challenges faced by business schools and HEIs provide insights for other institutions who long for implementing EfS. Also, the lack of actions aimed at mitigating resource-related challenges shows the need to improve educational public policies to help embed EfS in HEIs and business schools.