Theory of identity: the study of the existence of similar socio-environmental actions in the Brazilian electricity sector

• Autor(a) principal: Arantes, Alita de Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Outros Autores: Freire, Fátima de Souza, Barreto Junior, Eric Adrian Mattos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng; por
• Título da fonte: BBR. Brazilian Business Review (English edition. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://www.bbronline.com.br/index.php/bbr/article/view/210
• topic: Corporate social responsibility (CSR); global reporting initiative (GRI); social identity; organizational identity; Responsabilidade social corporativa (RSC); global reporting initiative (GRI); identidade social; identidade organizacional

According to the theory of identity, an identity means to recognize the group internal similarities and its differences with others. The theme of identity and the analysis of socio-environmental actions are justified by the need to issue corporate sustainability policies that the world requires for the development of society. This study aims to analyze the existence of groups from their identities and whether companies belonging to a particular group tend to perform similar socio-environmental actions. The groups were defined as financial and socio-environmental financial, by focusing on what each company portrayed in its mission, vision and values. The environmental programs and projects were attained in the sustainability reports from companies that follow the GRI guidelines. It was found that companies belonging to the same identity group tend to perform the same types of socio-environmental actions and that projects and actions in culture and sport and health are very similar; however the focus of the actions of each group is different for other indicators.