What is the purpose of eco-corporate social responsibility in Italian companies?

Abstract

Eco-Corporate social responsibility (ECO-CSR) is a managerial strategy that includes the use of sustainable energy, using water in a way that meets ecological standards, production of eco-friendly products, the greening of public areas, waste management, recycling, protection against harmful gas emissions, an eco-friendly office and green travel policy. The aim is to reduce harmful effects on the environment. This paper analyses the level and purpose of ECO-CSR in 100 companies of the Italian region of Campania. The first objective is to analyse the three attitudes of the respondents using Likert scales and to answer whether the reason for the ECO-CSR activities is to increase reputation, marketing strategy or profit? The ECO-CSR toll was created for research purposes, measuring the company’s investment in energy from sustainable sources, waste management and recycling strategy, prevention of harmful gases and pollution by the company or the local community, as well as the greening of public areas, parks, riverbeds, seashores or lakes. Seven items from the ECO-CSR toll were subjected to Principal component analysis. Three factor scores were isolated, i.e. different strategies for ECO-CSR management. The multiple regression analysis was used to measure whether the factor scores influence the change of the company’s profit variable in the past two years. Based on the value of R², 67.2% of the variability of the dependent variable was explained by the influence of three factor scores. GEWR has the greatest impact, whose jump by one point leads to an increase in profit by 0.573.