Performance Indicators of social responsibility: the case of agricultural enterprise in the inter-regional/trans-national project model

Abstract

This project is designed to create a platform of social responsibility (SR) performance indicators within the inter-regional/trans-national project "Creating a network for the dissemination of corporate social responsibility." The project, created to initiate a process of exchange for public administrations and businesses, comparison and mutual learning on the subject of SR, is intended to carry out joint measures to spread best practices locally, nationally, Europe-wide and internationally. With the intent to establish a single framework so that, on the one hand, businesses and other organizations recognize and improve their SR path, inserting it into their strategy, and secondly, for public administrations (PA) to recognize and “reward” SR actions and paths, a grid of key performance indicators (KPI) has been identified, divided by production sectors and strategy areas. For these sectors we have highlighted "key performance indicators," or KPIs, considered peculiar to business activity by sector . The contribution presented regards grid identification of "management indicators of significant risk" to the food and agriculture sector, aimed at the "assessing", "measuring" and "reporting" socially responsible actions: it has been found that the reputation which descends from the pursuit of effective SR practices decreases the riskiness of the company and increases its competitiveness and social positioning. The performance indicators, on the one hand, enable businesses to evaluate and adopt appropriate forms of extra-financial communication and to initiate sustainable paths, attentive to the social and environmental impacts of economic activities; on the other, they come together in a platform necessary for those administrations wishing to adopt "reward" mechanisms for socially responsible business behavior.