Business social responsibility. Search for assessment methods
Authors: Bikeeva M. V. 
Published: September 2020

Purpose of the study. The research materials continue the author's series of articles devoted to the problems of the stakeholder approach. The social responsibility of business acts as a launching pad for fruitful cooperation and interaction between business structures and authorities. The concept of corporate social responsibility is very dynamic, characterized by constant transformation, change and enrichment with new ideas. So, if in the middle of the XX century it developed rather slowly, not finding a response in the business environment, then in the XXI century it is “preached” as the main business philosophy by most of the advanced countries. At the same time, a characteristic feature of existing scientific approaches is the emphasis on technocratic and economic positions and the complete absence of approaches based on the relationship between business and stakeholders. However, such approaches from the author's point of view are insufficient for the entire range of requirements imposed by the external and internal environment on modern business. The ambiguity of the interpretation of the concept under study made it possible to state the complexity of this category and its multidimensional nature. In this regard, there is a need for a comprehensive statistical assessment of the degree of business socialization and the choice of appropriate tools for this.

Materials and methods. The statistical assessment of the degree of business social responsibility is based on local criteria, combined into five blocks. The presented system of criteria characterizes the activities of the business taking into account the requirements of the stakeholders. At the same time, the list of criteria can be adjusted when socio-economic trends and problems of society change. The information base of the study was the annual and financial reports of regional enterprises, the results of expert assessments. The hierarchy analysis method and the graphical polygon (radar) method were used as a tool for assessing the degree of business socialization.

Results. The article concretizes the concept of social and economic responsibility of business. The author's approach covers the idea of a responsible partnership based on the interaction of business with a wide range of interested groups involved in active and passive forms of participation in its operations. The variety of interests of stakeholders representing various subjects of market interaction emphasizes the multi-criteria nature of the category of “social and economic responsibility of business”. Statistical tools are fully capable of providing an assessment of the entire spectrum of signs of corporate social responsibility. The integral indicator of the degree of social responsibility, built on the basis of the hierarchy analysis method, made it possible to distinguish four degrees of business socialization: low, moderate, noticeable and high. For each degree of socialization, characteristic features are determined. The results of the study showed that as the degree of social responsibility grows, business performance indicators increase and its well-being in the long term depends on the coordination of the interests of key participants in corporate relations. An integral assessment of the degree of business socialization was carried out according to twenty-six local criteria. As a result of calculating the private and local ranks of the values of the corresponding criteria, fifteen polygons of the degree of socialization of the regional business were built, included in the sample. The results obtained make it possible to ascertain the existence of a high degree of heterogeneity of regional enterprises in terms of the investigated integral indicator. The leaders in terms of social responsibility are JSC “Teplichnoye”, OJSC “Mordovcement”, OJSC “Elektrovypryamitel”, OJSC “Lato”. Outsiders include OJSC Cheese-Making Plant “Ichalkovsky”, Ltd “Lisma”, OJSC “Stankostroitel”, OJSC “RubEx”. Among the features of regional enterprises, one can single out the heterogeneity in the distribution of indicators along the radial straight lines. JSC “Teplichnoye” is characterized by sharp fluctuations in rank values, which is most active in interaction with consumers, its own personnel, but also stands out as one of the smallest values of the block associated with relationships with business partners. A similar situation is observed among outsider enterprises. The proposed methodology can be used as a tool for a comprehensive study of existing trends in the practice of socially responsible business behavior, characteristics of the results achieved, as well as identifying problem areas that focus additional attention.