Responsabilidade Social nas Agroindústrias Canavieiras no Brasil

The objective of this research is to identify which of the economic, environmental or social dimensions exerts greater influence on the socially responsible behavior of the sugarcane agroindustry in Brazil. In order to do that, a theoretical survey was carried out to identify the origin, evolution and conceptualization of Social Responsibility, besides characterizing and presenting the relationship of the sugarcane agroindustry with the research theme. This research adopted as methodological procedure explanatory and quantitative research. As a research instrument, a questionnaire was applied, based on the theoretical basis and guidelines provided by the Global Reporting Initiative, applied to a universe of 184 sugarcane agroindustry (individual or group of companies), obtaining a return of 128 questionnaires. In order to attest the hypothesis, the structural equation modeling, applied through the SmartPLS, was used. The results demonstrate there is a positive influence of the economic, environmental and social dimensions in the CSR. When comparing the three dimensions, due to the fact that sugar-alcohol activity is very sensitive to environmental issues, in addition to the regulations that guide industrial processes, statistically the environmental dimension was not significant. On the other hand, the social dimension, due to historical, activity and administrative characteristics, exerts major influence in CSR.