Spain: CSR and business ethics make enterprises more competitive

According to Ignasi Carreras, Director of the recently created Institute of Social Innovation of ESADE, one of the most important European business schools, socially responsible enterprises will be the most competitive ones. Ignasi Carreras considers that corporate social responsibility and business ethics are profitable and he has embarked on a research mission to prove it.

He also considers that the society at large will be gradually more demanding on NGOs and enterprises. Whilst NGOs have much social credit, they nevertheless have to devote more resources to innovation, have to learn to measure their results, must be more transparent and make efforts to grow. Enterprises must include corporate responsibility as a key element of their business strategy. They will have to be more accountable for the environment and basic rights wherever they are. Both actors, NGOs and enterprises, also have to learn to co-operate between them.

Some enterprises see corporate responsibility as a fashion, while others have adopted a defensive approach. But there is a third group of enterprises that have integrated corporate responsibility at the core of their business model. Enterprises usually demand that corporate responsibility remains as something voluntary, but in public tenders governments may favour those that are more responsible and can also ask that enterprises supply social and environmental data in addition to economic information.