Adoption of the UN Global Compact in Spanish banking: a case study

• Published date: 01 November 2016
• Date: 01 November 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1596

■Academic Paper

Adoption of the UN Global Compact in

Spanish banking: a case study

Ainhoa Garayar

1

*, Iñaki Heras-Saizarbitoria

2

and Olivier Boiral

3

1

Financial Economy I, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Donostia–San Sebastián, Spain

2

Department of Management, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Donostia–San Sebastián, Spain

3

Département de Management, Faculté des sciences de l’administration, Université Laval, Québec, Canada

The aim of this work is to analyse the process involving adoption of a corporate social responsibility initiative—the

United Nations Global Compact—in a Spanish financial institution. Semi-structured interviews were conducted for

such purpose with managers, workers and customers from this organisation. From the analysis carried out, it can

be ascertained that only professionals from the specificfield of corporate social responsibility in the organisation being

analysed have suitable knowledge about the initiative adopted, while the other professionals are practically unaware

of it—even among professionals such as accountants who should clearly have suitable knowledge about the subject in

order to draft sustainability reports. As a result, the research also provides evidence about the ceremonial adoption of

the United Nations Global Compact, highlighting the internal friction existing within an organisation that until very

recently stood out in the Spanish banking sector for the amount of externally obtained awards in recognition of its

sustainability practices. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

Despite the rapid growth experienced duringthe first

decade of the 21stcentury in the number of organisa-

tions that imple mented systems and codes regarding

socially responsible conduct (Rasche, 2009), knowl-

edge about the reasons that foster these practices

remains limited (Jamali, 2010). This work focuses on

an analysis and study of the implementation process

for one of these initiatives: the United Nations Global

Compact (UNGC). This is, by a considerable margin,

the voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR)

proposal that is most widespread around the world

(Kell, 2013; Rasche, Waddock, & McIntosh, 2012;

Ruggie, 2004b). Spanish organisations have been the

ones that havebeen most active in adoptingit interna-

tionally, althoughonly few studies have thus far been

conducted with a view to analysing this phenomenon,

except for those by Ayuso and Roca (2010), Arevalo,

Aravind, Ayuso, and Roca (2013) and Garayar and

Calvo (2012).

The aim of this articleis to shed light on the UNGC

implementation process in a Spanishfinancial institu-

tion—a case thatwas selected for several reasons. Ac-

cording to Monitor IBEX RSC, which published its

findings in KPMG, this organisation stood out for its

corporate social responsibility practices (KPMG,

2011). It had also obtained major awards (‘Best Span-

ish CSR solution’at the first CSR MarketPlace,

organised by Forética), and its social responsibility

report had been bestowed the ‘Award for the Best

Sustainability Report among Spanish Companies’

awarded by the Spanish Institute of Licensed

Auditors (ICJCE) and the Spanish Association of

Accounting and Business Administration. Lastly, it

enjoyed the status of organisation associated with

the Global Compact (GC) as a founding partner of

the initiative, which implied great motivation in the

implementation of the Ten Principles.

The work is structured as follows. Following this

introduction, the second section analyses the United

*Correspondence to: Ainhoa Garayar, Financial Economy I,

University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Plaza Oñati n°1,

Donostia–San Sebastián, 20018, Spain.

E-mail: ainhoa.garayar@ehu.eus

Journal of Public Affairs

Volume 16 Number 4 pp 359–367 (2016)

Published online 1 February 2016 in Wiley Online Library

(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pa.1596

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.