Analysing the Effect of Legal System on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at the Country Level, from a Multivariate Perspective

In this paper, we analyse the effect of coercive isomorphism (legal system) on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at the country level by using the multivariate statistical techniques X-STATIS and HJ-biplot, which allow us to capture the role that these institutional forces play in the evolution and patterns of behaviour regarding the commitment to sustainability. The results evidence that coercive forces have an important influence on the social and environmental commitment of companies. Analysis of the legal system shows that firms located in civil law countries have a greater interest in their CSR practices and in disclosing information than companies in common law countries; the most likely companies to act in a responsible way are those operating in institutional environments with a large and developed legal system oriented towards stakeholder protection. Consequently, our results show that companies operating in countries with similar legal systems adopt homogeneous patterns of behaviour regarding the commitment to sustainability, but their degrees of development are strongly determined by the coercive institutional characteristics.