Strategic social responsibility and its impact on startup strategy: A qualitative study with Portuguese startups

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Marta Amado de Freitas Vieira Nogueira da
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/19424
• topic: Strategic social responsibility; Startup strategy; Founder-manager; Small business social responsibility; Responsabilidade social estratégica; Estratégia nas startups; Fundador-gestor; Pequenos negócios; Gestão de empresas; Estratégia empresarial; Startup; Responsabilidade social; Stakeholders; Portugal

Strategic Social Responsibility is the incorporation of a holistic perspective within an organization so that the company is managed in the interests of a broad set of stakeholders to achieve sustainable economic, environmental and social value over the medium to long-term. Considering the Portuguese context in which the number of Startups continues increasing significantly, this constitutes a relevant study universe to understand how the conceptualization of Social Responsibility and the perceived motivations and obstacles to its implementation have an impact on Strategy in the initial phase of the business life-cycle. With this purpose, an interview was applied to nine founder-managers of Portuguese Startups to understand their role in determining Strategic Social Responsibility engagement. The main conclusion seems to be that there is a common understanding that Social Responsibility practices must be connected to the core of the business. Despite with this understanding, Startups admit they are considering Social Responsibility; however they are not in a stage of applying it, mainly due to the lack of resources that inherent to the birth stage of the business life-cycle in which they are. Furthermore, the conceptualization of Social Responsibility as well as the perceived benefits in its integration across the organization, are deeply connected with the founder-manager’s moral attributes which are reflected in the company’s Mission (either explicit or perceived) that will frame Strategy. What becomes evident is the development of new forms of Social Responsibility in these Startups that expand the traditional view and evidence the need for further research on their specificities.