Resumen de Applying the economy for the common good framework to the european firms: antecedents, profile, and measurement theory validation
Over the last two decades, market faults have driven to emerge different new organizational approaches and alternative theories to the current economic system driven by a more humanistic and social perspective. Thus, the economic crisis that began in 2008 drove the Austrian sociologist and political activist Christian Felber, together with the support of a group of Austrian entrepreneurs to presented in 2008, a document entitled “New values for the Economy”. This document raised the bases for an alternative system to capitalism and communism. Thus, giving birth to a new economic and social model known as the Economy for the Common Good (ECG).
The ECG model derives from different organizational approaches and provides some contributions over those approaches. In particular, we refer to the Stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984), Shared Value approach proposed by Porter & Kramer (2011), and the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) proposed by Elkington (1997).
By its part, social entrepreneurship (SE) is understood as a powerful tool to create wealth for societies by promoting economic and social development, thus being is the closest to Economy for the Common Good principles. Consequently, the ECG is an organizational model that can lever the hybridization of ordinary companies. Therefore, this dissertation focused on analyzing the contribution of ECG model to SE and establishing the relationship that exists between both concepts by means of a systematic literature review. Thus, we evidenced that SE and ECG model share several principles and features. However, papers on the ECG model are still scarce due to its novel application in the business sphere. Therefore, we are facing a relatively new business model.
Secondly, this dissertation performed a comparative analysis to determine the degree of implication of the EGC organizational model on European firms. To do so, we proceed to analyze the ECG firms’ profile by means of the descriptive analysis of the variables under study. Thus, we identified 657 European organizations involved in the implementation of the ECG model, of which 400 had produced and audited their Common Good Balance Sheet up to December 31, 2017. Then, we concluded that ECG European companies focus on social and environmental variables when implementing the ECG model.
Finally, this dissertation also aimed to present the ECG model as an alternative sustainability management and control framework. In this sense, the ECG framework enables the operationalization of Corporate Sustainability. Thus, allowing the operationalization of Sustainable Developments Goals into the business context for any type of organization, including SMEs. To do so, we completed the statistical validation process of the ECG measurement theory using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on a sample of 206 European firms. The results of CFA allowed to validate and redefine the measurement scales included in the ECG framework.
