Typology of Social Responsibility of Large Russian Business in the Context of Orientation to the Internal and External Environment
Authors:   Voronezh State University, Nikitina Larisa M. , Tyurina Darya A. ,   Voronezh State University
Published: May 2022

Relevance. The development of corporate social responsibility in Russia is largely hindered due to the lack of pronounced market and financial advantages of companies implementing social and environmental projects and programs. The identification of a stable relationship between the social responsibility of companies and the financial performance of their activities is limited not only by the complexity of measurement and differences in the tools for assessing corporate social responsibility. The composition of the companies under study is of great im-portance, as well as the great variability of their influence on the internal and external environment, depending on the scale and type of economic activity. The purpose is to develop an empirical typology of large Russian companies based on the assessment of the dynamics of financial performance and orientation of corporate social responsibility to the internal or external environment. Objectives: to justify the choice and analyze the indicators characterizing the financial and economic performance of large Russian companies and their social responsibility in the context of orientation to the internal and external environment; to compare the dynamics of the financial and economic indicators of companies and their orientation to the internal and external sphere of corporate social responsibility; to identify ordered groups of companies and describe their characteristics, allowing to identify the type of company. Methodology. The research uses general scientific methods and techniques: analysis, synthesis, analogy, generalization, comparison, and methods of economic science: graphic, statistical. The empirical basis of the study was the annual and non-financial reports of large Russian companies in the oil and gas, energy, mining and metallurgical and telecommunications sectors for the period 2015-2018. Results. As a result of comparison of financial indicators and orientation of corporate social responsibility to the internal or external environment, groups of companies similar in a number of features are analyzed. Four types of large Russian business companies have been identified, characterized by the predominance of external, internal or balanced orientation of corporate social responsibility with a high or moderate growth rate of financial performance. Conclusions. The existence of a stable relationship between financial performance and corporate social responsibility remains a debatable issue. The analysis and comparison of a number of indicators of the financial, economic and socio-environmental spheres showed that fast-growing companies are more oriented to the external environment, whereas moderately growing companies are characterized by the internal orientation of social programs and projects or the equivalence of the internal and external environment. A significant factor in orientation to the internal and external environment is the company's belonging to a certain sector.