ABSTRACT
This chapter provides Portugal profiles which includes key information about the relevant corporate sustainability and responsibility (CSR) history, country-specific issues, trends, research, education and leading organizations. CSR is known in Portugal as Responsabilidade Social Empresarial. Three importance influences on Portuguese society have been the Roman Catholic Church, the country's tradition of mutuality and self-help, and its history of authoritarian political control. The Portuguese nation state has existed since 1143 and organised charities existed even before this, inspired mostly by the Roman Catholic Church. The New Order created opportunities for the creation of cooperatives. Portugal made water scarcity and drought a priority theme for its European Union presidency, a problem that had—until the advent of climate change —been of major concern only in southern countries. In 2002 the Portuguese Enterprise Association, the Aveiro University and the Porto Catholic University published exploratory research on ethical management and CSR in Portugal.
