ABSTRACT
According to a number of researchers (Bennie, Bernhagen and Mitchell, 2007; Cetindamar and Husoy, 2007; Byrd, 2009; Janney, Dess and Forlani, 2009; Runhaar and Lafferty, 2009) the main reasons for companies to adopt the UNGC initiative are the following: (1) the companies’ commitment to act in an ethical way, in terms of sustainable development or corporate citizenship; (2) improvement of companies’ image and access to foreign markets; and (3) as a response to the pressure of stakeholders, including customers. Only a few studies, however, have analyzed whether the adoption of the UNGC – as a driver of CSR performance – has truly stimulated the companies’ environmental, social and corporate governance performance (Ayuso and Roca, 2010; Garayar and Calvo, 2012; Arevalo et al., 2013). Furthermore, the moderating effect of the commitment to UNGC in the relationship between companies’ social performance (CSP), companies’ environmental performance (CEP), corporate governance performance (CGP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) seems to be unexplored.
