Responsabilidade social empresarial

: o atual paradigma de governance com os olhos postos no futuro

Abstract

For many years, we Humans, have been using the world´s resources at will for our own benefit, without contemplating the consequences that could occur. These resources we speak of do not refer only to the environment. They can also be social and economic. This unreasonable exploration of said resources and way of conducting business led to the depletion of resources, as well as social and economic inequalities we see today (some of them labor related).In this dissertation, we will address a subject that nowadays has acquired the most utter urgency. The companies, in their relentless pursuit of profit, have also been the leaders in creating the problems we just enunciated. As such, they should also be the ones leading the solution to these problems, the ones that make the greatest efforts in trying to change both the actions and mentalities, being the ones in the best position and with the greatest capacity to affect the changes needed. In the face of big changes, the consumer himself is now looking for sustainable products, companies and corporations must adapt and deliver what the customer wants,in order to stay competitive and profitable. This is where Corporate Governance and Corporate Responsibility converge, “giving birth” to what is called Corporate Social Responsibility (or CSR). In this context, it is also important to clarify the importance of the governance models adopted.Furthermore, we try to explain how important it is for companies to adopt a new way of acting and conducting business, while respecting every stakeholder involved, dropping the idea of the relentless pursuit of profit. We also try to demonstrate that CSR can be a way of creating value for the company itself and how that could be achieved with the use of sustainable investment, financing and even through an effective use of “green taxation”, and in what way that constitutes a “duty” for institutional investors. At last, we also immerse our selves in the European and national regulatory field to understand its importance. Additionally, we look into the Portuguese legal framework,to analyse how CSR is reflected in it as a general duty for administrators and managers, scrutinizing and ranking the various interests within the norm, which still as a long way to go.

Date of Award	29 Mar 2023
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Paulo Câmara Pires dos Santos Martins (Supervisor)