Corporate Social Responsibility as a Vehicle to Reveal the Corporate Identity: A Study Focused on...

Corporate Social Responsibility as a Vehicle to Revealthe Corporate Identity: A Study Focused on the Websitesof Spanish Financial Entities

Rafael Bravo • Jorge Matute • Jose M. Pina

Received: 15 April 2011 / Accepted: 30 August 2011 / Published online: 9 September 2011

� Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Abstract This study explores the relevance of corporate

social responsibility (CSR) as an element of the corporate

identity of Spanish financial institutions. Specifically, it

aims to analyze the CSR actions developed by financial

entities through the analysis of all the available information

disclosed in their websites. A content analysis applied to 82

banking institutions, followed by different quantitative

analyses, reveals the multidimensionality of CSR. Findings

show that, while the number of entities institutionalizing

CSR values as core elements of their identities is still

reduced, most organizations disclose CSR information to

construct communicated identities and legitimate behav-

iours. Besides, these dimensions are classified depending

on the stakeholder the action is aimed to, and that entities

favour the generation of distinctive identities through the

implementation and communication of more visible CSR

actions like those involving their customers or the com-

munity. In any case, results indicate that organizations with

certain characteristics are more likely to construct dis-

tinctive identities through CSR activities and to establish

ethical and social values within their corporate statements

and cultures.

Keywords Corporate social responsibility �Corporate identity � Financial services industry �Corporate website � Content analysis

Abbreviation

CSR Corporate social responsibility

Introduction

Nowadays, companies go beyond their economic obliga-

tions and are particularly meticulous in considering and

accounting their activities’ impact on the environment. In

the financial sector, where different stakeholders are

especially sensitive to corporate social responsibility

(CSR) issues, managers have realized that future success

may depend on balancing short-term financial goals with

long-term sustainable issues (Ogrizek 2002). Capital mar-

kets rely on sustainability indexes to track financial per-

formance of the leading sustainability-driven firms, banks

disclose CSR reports to align their behaviour to the soci-

ety’s expectations, and managers try to record their firms

social impacts by adopting triple bottom line approaches

(Hossain and Reaz 2007; Ziek 2009). From an academic

standpoint, recent research points at CSR as a source of

competitive advantages, since it may be considered as an

excellent vehicle to enhance the legitimacy of the firm

among relevant interest groups (Jamali 2008; Holder-Webb

et al. 2009) and to develop a strong long-term reputation

(Brown and Dacin 1997; Sen and Bhattacharya 2001).

In the current scenario of financial crisis, where capital

and consumer markets have experienced a loss of credi-

bility towards financial entities, managers in the sector face

R. Bravo � J. M. Pina

Facultad de Ciencias Economicas y Empresariales,

The University of Zaragoza, Gran vıa 2, 50005 Zaragoza, Spain

e-mail: [email protected]

J. M. Pina


J. Matute (&)

Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud y del Deporte de Huesca,

The University of Zaragoza, Plaza Universidad 3,

22002 Huesca, Spain


123

J Bus Ethics (2012) 107:129–146

DOI 10.1007/s10551-011-1027-2

the challenge of improving their companies’ images by

developing coherent organizational identities. Given the

intangible nature of financial services and the obstacles that

banks find to differentiate their products, the management

of corporate identity is especially determinant within this

industry (Wilkinson and Balmer 1996; Haniffa and Hudaib

2007; Marin and Ruiz 2007). One of the main routes to

create a solid identity is through CSR since it is considered

as an immediate expression of corporate behaviour that

may allow a socially oriented company to be differentiated

from the rest of competitors (Balmer et al. 2007). CSR

captures all those voluntary initiatives that help companies

to position their images towards external and internal

stakeholders thus communicating a desired identity. It will

be inherently linked to the corporate personality, to the

ethos and to the internal culture if ethical principles lay on

the firm’s mission, vision and values that guide the cor-

porate strategy and the organizational behaviour (Maignan

and Ralston 2002).

The communication of CSR activities is even seen as a

pre-requisite to achieve positive outcomes since stake-

holders’ identification with firm relies on its awareness

about business’ impacts on specific issues (Maignan and

Ferrel 2004; Podnar 2008). Within this context, and given

the growth of the World Wide Web in recent years, the

corporate website is a communication channel that com-

panies employ to reveal their identity, to manage external

impressions on the firm and to legitimate corporate

behaviours towards stakeholders through CSR reporting

(Hooghiemstra 2000; Patten 2002; Pollach 2003). How-

ever, literature focusing on CSR in the context of fairly

standardized services is scarce since it has been mainly

focused in the consumer goods sector (Pomering and

Dolnicar 2009). Moreover, despite some previous efforts in

analyzing CSR reporting in the financial context (Coupland

2005; Castelo and Lima 2006), little is known about the

way CSR contributes to create and to communicate a

corporate identity in this sector. Therefore, given these

research gaps, this article, analyzing the CSR information

reported by the Spanish population of banks and savings

banks, aims to: (i) explore how financial institutions create

differential identities through CSR values, (ii) assess the

relative importance of different CSR dimensions in the

creation of the corporate communicated identity and (iii)

explore differences in the nature of these activities con-

sidering different organizational characteristics. This

study is appropriate, not only because the decline of

credibility that banks are experiencing in this period of

time, the current climate of customer dissatisfaction, and

the positive outcomes associated to CSR, but also because

the current scenario of mergers and acquisitions in the

industry that requires managers to create and communicate

new organizational identities.

Thus, the study’s findings will shed light on the nature

of CSR in the financial sector and on the elements that

financial institutions employ to reveal their personalities

and to position their social behaviour towards multiple

stakeholders. They will also serve as a benchmarking for

managers of this specific sector, and for other industries’

executives interested in CSR, that wish to compare their

companies’ social situation with their main direct com-

petitors. Besides, because previous studies are usually

constrained to explore CSR disclosed by limited samples of

large and visible corporations that are especially meticu-

lous in CSR reporting, this article fills a gap in the literature

by analyzing all types of information disclosed by a com-

plete population of financial institutions with heteroge-

neous characteristics.

To meet these aims, this study is structured as follows.

First, it introduces the theoretical background by depicting

and linking the concepts of CSR and corporate identity.

Second, method is explained with special mention to

content analysis. Third, results are described and the article

concludes with the main conclusions, limitations and future

research lines.

Theoretical Background

Corporate Social Responsibility: An Overview

of its Conceptualization

The conceptualization of the CSR has received much

attention from the academia and numerous definitions on

the term have been emerging in the literature. As Maignan

and Ferrel (2004) argue, conceptualizations on the term

CSR have suffered severe variations since in the 1950s

some authors began to investigate the company’s social

‘obligations’. In these initial stages, CSR was seen as a

firm’s duty to go beyond its economic responsibilities

considering ethical and legal obligations (to accomplish

laws and ethical norms and values), and philanthropic

requirements (to reward the society). Therefore, in its ini-

tial phases, the concept of CSR was conceptualized as a

‘social obligation’, considering the normative and philo-

sophic issues involving the function of the company as a

generator of welfare (Dahlsrud 2008).

It is during the 1990s when CSR literature experiences a

notable ascend as a consequence of a number of academics

considering CSR activities as the firms’ responses to

stakeholders’ pressures. Following the stakeholders theory,

companies are not responsible to the global society as a

whole, but aim to respond to different constituencies, like

the customers, the local communities, the organiza-

tional stakeholders, the media, etc. (Varadarajan and

Menon 1988). This view assumes that firms move from

130 R. Bravo et al.

123

shareholder-value creation paradigms to stakeholder-man-

agement approaches considering the effects of their actions

on various constituencies (Stubbs and Cocklin 2007).

The stakeholder approach has also received some critics

since it assumes that the company adopts a reactive

approach adapting its behaviour to salient groups’ expec-

tations with the immediate purpose of gaining legitimacy.

Instead of considering CSR as a self-interest reaction to

external and internal pressures, recent views support the

idea that CSR can be seen as a proactive and voluntary

attitude (Garriga and Mele 2004). The idea is that com-

panies are not strictly responding to social norms to obtain

legitimacy, but are interested in good citizenship on an

altruistic manner and not merely guided by self-interest,

trying to optimize social welfare even at the expense of

their own benefits (Falck and Heblich 2007). In this line,

Moir (2001) views CSR as ‘the continuing commitment by

business to behave ethically and contribute to economic

developments while improving the quality of life of the

workforce and their families as well as the local commu-

nity and society at large’.

From a managerial point of view, some authors also

describe different processes, policies and programs

required to efficiently tie social practices to stakeholders’

expectations (Marin and Ruiz 2007). Following this

approach, several studies have been devoted to analyze

how CSR generate positive benefits for the company and

which resources and capabilities determine the successful

implementation of these activities (Simpson and Kohers

2002). However, despite the extensive literature on the

topic, the study of the CSR and the financial performance

link is still a perplexing issue in the literature that evi-

dences the existence of non-unanimous findings. As Mohr

et al. (2001) admit, because CSR payoffs take time to

appear, short-term-oriented firms, and those having time

restrictions to create monetary benefits, could perceive

social obligations as pernicious to their economic stability.

Besides, financial premiums associated with CSR strategies

are frequently considered as modest by managers of the

sector, suggesting that they do not regard CSR as signifi-

cantly value enhancing or risk reducing (Goss and Roberts

2009).

The phenomenon of CSR has been especially visible in

the banking industry, where financial institutions have

devoted great amounts of money to invest in diverse cau-

ses, such as implementing loan standards for high risk

sectors (McDonald and Rundle-Thiele 2008). The

embracement of CSR strategies by banks has allowed them

to improve their corporate image by externalizing a social

identity through employees, clients and other stakeholders

can feel identified with. However, companies in general,

and banks in particular, are not only trying to be more

responsible towards social constituencies, but are also

granting more visibility to their social activities with

increasing media coverage for CSR practices (Luo and

Bhattacharya 2006). Actually, new successful formulas of

commercial banking have arisen as a result of banks’

support to investments in social and environmental sus-

tainability (Stubbs and Cocklin 2007; Weber 2005).

Besides, major international banking groups have adhered

to voluntary initiatives, like the Equator Principles, to gain

social legitimacy and be recognized as ‘gold standards’ in

the financial sector.

The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility

as an Element of the Corporate Identity

Corporate Identity: Conceptualization and Dimensions

Similar to what happens to people, organizations have their

own identities through which they can be recognized and

differentiated from other companies in the sector (Mark-

wick and Fill 1997; Jorda et al. 2009). This identity is

determined by a number of features, relatively stable over

time, whose specificity allows organizations to be easily

recognizable. In the literature is often seen how the authors

refer to the term corporate identity as ‘what the company is

or expects to be’, ‘what it does’ or ‘what it stands by’

(Melewar 2003). The concept of corporate identity has

been widely debated in the marketing and organizational

research literature. However, there is still a lack of theo-

retical convergence on its conceptualization. The reason of

this lack of agreement relies on the fact that the literature

has been principally linked to practice, and theoretical

underpinnings on the term lay on multiple disciplines

(Melewar and Karaosmanoglu 2006). However, despite the

numerous definitions on the term, there is certain agree-

ment on the idea that corporate identity is not only con-

strained to some visual tools that serve the company as a

way to be revealed towards their stakeholders. The cor-

porate identity also includes all the central and peripheral

organizational characteristics that represent its essence, its

personality and the internal culture (van Rekom 1997;

Jorda et al. 2009).

The external projection of the corporate identity repre-

sents what some authors conceive as the ‘communicated

identity’. The successful transmission of that identity is

critical for the positioning of the firm because it should

properly reflect the ‘desired or ideal identity’ (Powell et al.

2009). More specifically, Balmer (2001) defines the

‘communicated identity’ as the sum of the messages sent

out through primary, secondary and tertiary communica-

tions that position the company in the minds of stake-

holders. Other authors affirm that properly managing this

communication is a key task for an organization, since its

identity is conceived as a set of meanings that allow

CSR and Corporate Identity of Financial Entities 131

123

consumers and other groups to identify, describe and

interact with the organization (Markwick and Fill 1997).

Thus, the fit between the factual corporate identity and the

projected identity is a crucial factor in an organization’s

communication effectiveness (Brønn et al. 2006; van

Rekom 2002).

The management of the corporate identity requires the

consideration of a plethora of variables linked to the

internal culture, to the strategy and to communicational

practices (Melewar 2003). Balmer and Soenen (1999)

summarize this idea in the corporate identity mix that is

composed of the firm’s mind (central aspects related to the

company’s mission and vision), the soul (corporate values

that define the internal culture) and the voice (controllable

and uncontrollable communications, aesthetics, visual

identity, etc.). Following Balmer and Soenen’s (1999)

metaphor, different proposals see CSR as an expression of

the corporate behaviour. Corporate behaviour is conceived

as the total sum of actions performed by an organization in

accordance with its culture or, by contrast, that occur

spontaneously and without previous planning, that reflects

the way it proceeds towards the environment (Cornelissen

et al. 2003; Melewar 2003; Suvatjis and de Chernatony

2005). Since CSR is articulated through the different social

and controllable activities that a company voluntarily

develop on an altruistic way or motivated by self-interest, it

can be considered as an expression of the corporate

behaviour (David et al. 2005). Indeed, the development of

proactive social activities may be simply the primary

manifestation of the corporate culture if CSR values are

rooted in the corporate principles. Maignan and Ralston

(2002) noted that when companies actually develop

socially responsible activities on its own conviction, CSR

should be regarded as an essential feature of the corporate

identity because it reflects the enduring core values that

define the culture of that organization. It is therefore a part

of the corporate conduct that should be coherent with the

core values, shared beliefs and collective assumptions that

define the internal culture (van Riel and Balmer 1997).

The Construction of a Corporate Identity Through CSR

Recent research points out that the relevance of CSR as an

element of the corporate identity relies on its potential to

enhance stakeholders’ identification with the firm. Identi-

fication refers to the state by which a person or a stake-

holder feels that the attributes they use to define an

organizational also define themselves (Dutton et al. 1994).

Corporate identification is associated with competitive

advantages involving employee commitment and satisfac-

tion (O’Reilly and Chatman 1986), better customers’

evaluations (Luo and Bhattacharya 2006), and supportive

organizational behaviour (Dutton et al. 1994). Following

Scott and Lane (2000), CSR may enhance the connection

between companies and individuals if managers and other

communities share their beliefs about the central and

enduring values that define the corporate identity. Since

stakeholders feel identified with firms when they perceive

that their own values match with corporate attributes, the

integration of CSR principles within the organizational

culture may help a firm to reinforce links with stakeholders

(Maignan and Ferrel 2004). Companies may enhance

stakeholders’ identification through different approaches

like the inclusion of CSR images in corporate communi-

cations, affiliating stakeholders’ to the company by shared

concerns towards an specific social, charitable or envi-

ronmental cause, or fostering stakeholders’ interactions

around CSR activities (Maignan and Ferrel 2004). For

example, the communication and marketing of social

campaigns allows companies to create alliances with

organizational members that will develop multiple forms of

identification and promote the development of ‘communi-

ties of social responsibility’ (Berger et al. 2006). In any

case, the successful creation of that sense of belonging

through CSR practices depends on consumers’ attributions

on the corporation in such a way that different activities

may awake different reactions from customers (Ellen et al.

2006).

In the context of banking, given the high visibility of

financial entities towards the public opinion and the mar-

kets and the increased competition, it is especially signif-

icant to disclose social responsibility information to present

a responsible image, to legitimize actions, strategies and

decisions and to develop connections with stakeholders

(Castelo and Lima 2006). Besides, at a time when banks

are experiencing increasing levels of customer dissatis-

faction (Arbore and Busacca 2009), and given the high

level of customers’ implication with the services, recent

research suggest that investing in CSR and communicating

this responsible behaviour may help firms to create dif-

ferential identities, satisfying and retaining customers and

internal stakeholders, and recuperating the market’s cred-

ibility (de los Salmones et al. 2005; Luo and Bhattacharya

2006) thus generating competitive advantages (de la Cuesta

et al. 2006).

Research Questions

As previously noted, the communication of the CSR

actions is seen as a cornerstone to capture the benefits from

developing such initiatives because stakeholders must be

aware of the business’ social decisions. As Scott and Lane

(2000) point out, marketing communications help organi-

zations to enhance stakeholders’ identification with the

company and foster the projection of a good corporate

citizen image. Indeed, marketing communications may

132 R. Bravo et al.

123

enhance the link between CSR practices and the sense of

identification of various stakeholders with the corporate

brand (Maignan and Ferrel 2004). Consequently, the pub-

lication and dissemination of information in their websites

related to CSR practices is frequently employed by busi-

nesses that desire to present themselves as socially

responsible (Maignan and Ralston 2002). In summary,

through their behaviour, companies send signals to the

marketplace about their identities and position their cor-

porate brands in the consumers’ minds. As intended actions

seem to be more influential than unintended, social and

ethical decisions appear to be critical for the successful

projection of a desirable identity and for attracting cus-

tomers and applicants. If CSR values are rooted in the

corporate culture, CSR should be considered as direct

determinant of the corporate identity, since it is manifest-

ing the central an enduring values of an organization that

enable it to be distinctive (Collier and Esteban 2007).

Given the nature of the financial services industry and

the importance tied to the communication of CSR activi-

ties, it is essential to analyze the nature of CSR information

disclosed by banks in order to explore its role in the for-

mation of the corporate identity, and to understand how it

can contribute to reinforce stakeholders’ identification with

the entity (Balmer et al. 2007). In the light of these issues,

the following research question is posed:

RQ1 To what extent and how financial entities develop

differential corporate identities through CSR?

As regards to the dimensionality of CSR, in the financial

services literature, different proposals can be identified in

previous works, based on different theoretical develop-

ments like the stakeholders’ theory or Carroll’s (1979)

pyramid (Table 1). In any case, while there is certain

agreement on some basic dimensions, the importance

conceded by banks to these areas may differ depending on

various factors. For instance, McDonald and Rundle-Thiele

(2008) consider that social actions of banks can be classi-

fied in different dimensions like overseas initiatives,

employee diversity, employee support, environmental ini-

tiatives, ethical products marketing and actions aimed to

support the community. However, they state that banks

prioritize those actions more influential on stakeholders’

perceptions like overseas operations and diversity actions.

Coupland (2005) found three main dimensions of banks’

CSR in terms of ‘doing good’ (charity, employee support,

etc.), ‘being good’ (environmental responsibilities, diver-

sity and equality) and ‘funding good’ (investing in ethical

businesses) activities. They also observed that, while most

banks focused on doing and being good, traditional banks

were more cautious as regards to the funding information

because of the importance of investors as a salient group.

In a similar vein, Castelo and Lima (2006) distinguished

among environmental, human resources, products and

consumers, and community involvement responsibilities.

These authors also observed differences in the importance

tied by banks to the different dimensions of CSR, with

online reports highlighting actions aimed to community

and consumers, and offline information focusing on

employees CSR.

This partial agreement on the dimensions of CSR, defined

in most cases by the target stakeholders, indicates that still

many financial entities conceive CSR and social reporting as

a way to legitimate their actions towards external and

internal audiences (Birth et al. 2008; Maignan and Ralston

2002), and that organizations concentrate their attention on a

similar set of stakeholders and issues (Snider et al. 2003). In

any case it seems that differences exist as regards to the

relevance that banks concede to the different CSR dimen-

sions. Therefore, a research question is proposed:

RQ2 Which are the most salient dimensions of CSR

employed by the financial institutions in the construction of

a communicated corporate identity? Are all these dimen-

sions equally relevant in the formation of the communi-

cated identity?

Organizational features are considered as determinants

of organizational interest in externalizing social and envi-

ronmental activities (Bowen 2000). Thus, certain compa-

nies with certain characteristics will be more motivated to

construct their identities based on the communication of

their CSR actions. As previously mentioned, CSR disclo-

sure is essential in this sector to legitimate actions, to

develop connections with stakeholders and to improve

corporate images. However, it is expected that certain

organizations will be more prone to construct corporate

identities through CSR messages. For example, interna-

tional organizations are usually more concerned with social

issues due to the lack of legitimacy attributed to foreign

firms (Zaheer 1995) and to the large number and diversity

of stakeholders to whom they must make commitments

(Deniz-Deniz and Garcıa-Falcon 2002). Size is also a

typical variable explaining corporate citizenship and dis-

closure of CSR actions since larger corporations are more

visible to the public, have more market power, its effect on

the community is bigger and must respond to a large

number of stakeholders. Reverte (2009) found that larger

and listed companies tend to disclose more CSR informa-

tion. In the specific context of banking, Castelo and Lima

(2006) also stated that listed and larger entities are more

interested into disclosing online and offline CSR informa-

tion. Also, savings banks tend to be more socially oriented

since their origin is associated the exercise of charitable

and social works. However, commercial banks’ increased

interest for CSR and the privatization and reconversion of

savings banks into private firms seems to be eroding the


123

differences between the social orientations of both types of

entities. Within this context, San-Jose et al. (2011) found

that savings banks provided more information regarding

transparency issues than commercial and cooperative

banks but Castelo and Lima (2006) did not notice any

difference between them. With a similar method, Maignan

and Ralston (2002) found that CSR reporting differed

according to the firm’s country of origin, with companies

from different countries conceding different importance to

diverse CSR dimensions. In the light of this, it is reason-

able to think that organizational variables determine enti-

ties’ interest in developing communicated identities

through CSR disclosing. This argument is reflected in the

following research question:

RQ3 What types of financial institutions are more

prone to construct corporate identities based on CSR

communications?

Method

This research’s focus of analysis lies in the elements of the

banks’ CSR that are communicated through their websites

and that contribute to shape the organizational identity. The

expansion of the World Wide Web as a communication

channel has driven companies to favour the utilization of

the Internet as a channel to communicate social informa-

tion to the detriment of traditional and mass media.

Available online information has also been employed by

several studies to explore CSR principles of firms in dif-

ferent sectors (Cornelius et al. 2007; Holder-Webb et al.

2009; Hou and Reber 2011; Snider et al. 2003) and of

banks in particular (Castelo and Lima 2006; Tsang 1998).

The population object of study consists of banks and

savings banks operating in Spain. Specifically, it covers all

the banks adhered to the Spanish Banking Association

(AEB) and the savings banks associated to the Spanish

Confederation of Savings Banks (CECA). In this study,

cooperative banks were discarded because they disclose

aggregated information through the same online platform,

thus impeding the individual analysis of every coopera-

tive’s CSR information. Besides, the focus of the study did

not include financial institutions that do not have a website

in the Spanish language or focused on foreign clients;

specialized entities that are subsidiaries of a general bank

and that do not have a differentiated corporate identity

from the parent entity. In total, the population was com-

posed of 82 financial institutions of which 42 were banks

and 40 were savings banks (Appendix).

The process of analysis of these entities’ CSR involved

the content analysis methodology (Krippendorff 1990)

through the exploration of different elements and pieces of

information disclosed in their websites. This information

included different types of reports and documents available

in the websites, especially annual financial reports, annual

management reports, corporate responsibility reports and all

the information directly displayed in the website’s internal

Table 1 CSR dimensionality in

the financial services industryAuthor(s) Context Dimensions

Tsang (1998) 10 years annual reports of 11

Singapore banks

Environment CSR

Employees CSR

Community involvement CSR

Other activities (responsible products)

Coupland (2005) Online CSR reports of five

banking groups in the UK

Community CSR (doing good)

Environmental and internal CSR (being good)

Values-based CSR (funding good)

Castelo and Lima

(2006)

Online information and offline

annual reports of fifteen

Portuguese banks

Environmental CSR

Employees CSR

Products and consumers CSR


Dusuki and

Abdullah (2007)

Consumer-focused approach

(750 questionnaires)


Environmental CSR

Human rights respect CSR

McDonald and

Rundle-Thiele

(2008)

Theoretical hierarchy of CSR

dimensions

Overseas operations

Employee diversity

Employee support

Environmental actions

Ethical products

Community support

134 R. Bravo et al.

123

links. This aspect allowed the researchers to address a limi-

tation of previous studies that focused exclusively on the

analysis of CSR reports without considering additional

materials or links containing this type of information.

The first step in the content analysis consisted of the

definition of a classification system for the different elements

of the CSR information. This classification would be sub-

sequently modified, accommodating it, if required, to the

analyzed information. To warrantee the procedure’s validity,

previous classifications about the dimensions of CSR were

considered as starting points (Castelo and Lima 2006;

Coupland 2005; McDonald and Rundle-Thiele 2008). Nev-

ertheless, during the recording process, new categories were

created and other had to be modified in order to accommo-

date new information or to achieve a more accurate classi-

fication (Florek et al. 2006, Rowley 2009). Obviously, the

emergence and modification of these categories required the

review of the entities that were previously analyzed to

employ the same categorization schema in all the entities, in

order to obtain consistent and comparable information.

Following Bakeman and Gottman (1986), a training and

supervision system for the ‘judges’ was established. Thus,

an initial examination of some of the entities was per-

formed in order to discuss the most relevant incidents and

obtain consensus in the analysis criteria. Subsequently,

regular meetings to discuss new incidents or difficulties,

and refine this criterion, were also arranged. Specifically,

each entity was reviewed by two judges independently and

the inter-judge agreement coefficients in the categories

analyzed were in all cases above 90%, acceptable for this

type of method (Neuendorf 2002) and similar to previous

literature (Gram 2007). Due to the amount of information

to explore, the data analysis was conducted between May

and November 2010. Since websites are dynamic and fre-

quently updated, researchers analyzed and discussed every

website in the same period of time.

Results

Once the information was registered, classified and codi-

fied, and the reliability of the content analysis was verified,

the researchers proceeded to analyze it. In general terms, it

was observed that 77 of the 82 (93.4%) financial entities

operating in the Spanish market presented different infor-

mation regarding CSR. The 48% of the entities simply

disclosed this information in the website and superficially

commented the main areas of social interest, and the 52%

of the organizations allowed total access to this information

through the social responsibility annual reports. Indeed,

47.5% of the entities only offered the last period available

report while the rest of them included information from

different periods (only the 12.5% offered reports of the last

five periods). The entities’ commitment towards good

citizenship was also reflected in the adhesion to certain

voluntarily initiatives like the Global Reporting Initiatives

(31.4%) or to the Equator Principles (14.6%). Some addi-

tional, but anecdotic, external manifestations of societal

commitment were the publication of ISO-14000, AENOR,1

Greenflet, SGE212 or the Boston College for Corporate

Citizenship certifications.

The Construction of a Corporate Identity Through CSR

To respond to RQ1, and analyze how institutions construct

their identities through CSR, the consideration of ethical

and social values within the corporate statements was

explored. This procedure consisted, first, into identifying

different categories involving diverse terms related to CSR

and ethical issues and, second, into assessing if the popu-

lation’s entities included these values within their corporate

statements (assigning the value 1 if the term appeared and 0

if it did not). The corporate mission, vision and values play

an important role in the formation of the corporate identity

since they lay behind the corporate culture and reflect the

beliefs, moral principles and aspirations of the company

(van Riel and Balmer 1997; de Witt and Meyer 1998).

Some of the institutions considered in the study espoused

the main principles articulating their mission, vision and

corporate values that guided their corporate strategies and

defined their roles towards the society. Examining the

content of these information it was observed that, while

most of the banks focused on the ‘long-term creation of

economic value for investors’, and ‘the customer as the

centre of our activity’, thus reaffirming the economic and

commercial nature of banks, the savings banks highlight

their ‘social orientation’ and ‘contribution to the achieve-

ment of the community’s general interests’. However,

certain economic-driven banks also employed social and

ethical issues to define their corporate principles. For

example, one international bank defined its corporate

vision as the way ‘we work for a better future for people’

and articulated their values around the ideas of ‘ethical

behaviour’ and ‘social responsibility as a commitment

towards the social development’. However, despite the

existence of certain anecdotic evidences, the truth is that

most commercial banks only mentioned CSR principles

and ethical issues as parts of their corporate values and not

as direct determinants of their corporate mission and

vision. In the case of savings banks, while most of them

confirmed through the principles statements their social

origin and orientation, it was also observed that small and

medium entities also adopted a commercial approach to

1 The Spanish Association for standardization and certification.2 Ethical and socially responsible management standard in Spain.


123

define their principles. Indeed, different savings banks

stated their current mission as ‘a priority towards custom-

ers’ needs to build relationships based on trust and trans-

parency through high quality services’.

In general terms, within the mission, vision and values’

statements, different ethical issues were mentioned as an

effort to communicate the entities’ relationships with inter-

nal and external publics. As can be observed in Table 2, ideas

like ‘social responsibility’, ‘sustainable growth’, ‘mutual

benefits’, ‘honesty’, ‘social needs’, ‘respect to the diversity’

and ‘human development’ were frequently integrated with

the corporate principles’ statements. Commitment towards

the society was also reflected in these statements through the

consideration of the needs of different relevant stakeholders

as guiding principles of the entity’s activity (Table 2). Spe-

cifically, it was observed that while the most present stake-

holder in the corporate statements was the customer, the

orientation of the entities towards the society, the employ-

ees’ and the community was frequently integrated within this

information. It should be noted that some other principles

that involve an economic-driven nature of the banks, like the

shareholders’ and companies’ orientations, were also often

disclosed in the corporate principles.

Assessment of the CSR Dimensions and its Importance

in the Creation of a Communicated Identity

To respond to RQ2 and explore the dimensionality of

CSR and the importance of every dimension in the

exteriorization of the identity, frequencies and mean anal-

yses were conducted. It should be noted that, as regards to

the content and nature of CSR information, one of the most

immediate findings was the fact that a great majority of the

financial institutions classified it depending on their target

stakeholders. Specifically, information on CSR gathered

from the websites was grouped according to the activities

that banks implemented in order to satisfy the social needs

of different groups like suppliers, customers, the commu-

nity, employees and the environment (Fig. 1). At this point,

the codification procedure, similar to Purushothaman et al.

(2000), implied assigning a value of 1 to an institution that

provides information on a specific category (for instance,

the existence of codes of ethic in the selection of suppliers)

and a value of 0 if no information is provided. The obtained

dimensions are in line with previous research, since similar

groups were also found in preceding studies (Birth et al.

2008; Castelo and Lima 2006; Maignan and Ralston 2002)

with the exception of the suppliers category. Besides, the

‘Community CSR’ included four subcategories ‘research

and development’, ‘social integration’, ‘health and charity’

and ‘cultural and leisure activities’.

Afterwards, we calculated the average punctuation of

every category and the frequency of appearance of every

specific element included in those classifications (Fig. 1).

For example, from the six categories defined within the

customers CSR, if a company presented information about

five of them, the summary variable was calculated as

5/6 = 0.83. This procedure is common in this type of

works (Dall’Olmo-Riley and Lacroix 2003; Gram 2007),

and in this case, it reveals the most usual and unusual

information that banks provide in relation to CSR in their

websites. Results reveals that most of the communicated

CSR actions are aimed to customers (0.52) and the com-

munity (0.49), while information about CSR actions aimed

at the environment (0.39), employees (0.34) and suppliers

(0.26) were not so frequently disclosed. Within the com-

munity dimension, findings suggested not highly marked

differences, with entities showing more information about

health and charity (0.53) and research and development

(0.51) issues and less about cultural and leisure (0.48) and

social integration topics (0.45).

As regards to the suppliers’ responsibility, specifically

two elements were recorded. The first refers to the prioriti-

zation of responsible purchases to suppliers (26.8%). It

involves the preference of suppliers that meet social desir-

able features, like the local companies or those that meet the

agreements of the Global Compact Lead, but does not require

the specific adhesion to a set of established norms. It merely

denotes a preference but not an explicit obligation. The

existence of ‘codes of ethics’ (25.6%) indicates that the

institution is homologating and evaluating its suppliers’

social performance requiring them to meet specified social

Table 2 CSR principles in the corporate mission, vision and values

Mission Vision Values Total

Term

Social responsibility 11 8 13 32

Sustainable growth 8 5 2 15

Transparency 1 2 12 15

Ethics 4 4 3 11

Honesty 1 0 6 7

Human development 2 1 3 6

Humanism 0 0 4 4

Social needs 2 1 0 3

Respect to the diversity 0 0 2 2

Stakeholder

Customers 12 12 11 35

The society 12 6 4 22

People (employees) 4 4 6 14

Stakeholders (in general) 2 2 4 8

Shareholders 5 0 2 7

Companies 3 4 1 8

The community 2 1 2 5

Figures indicate the number of entities that pointed at every specific

term

136 R. Bravo et al.

123

and environmental objectives. Entities developing these

codes were also characterised by elaborating handbooks to

audit responsible purchases; being especially meticulous in

the evaluation of suppliers’ in emergent countries; and

involving suppliers in the development of more sustainable

practices with collaboration agreements, courses and sharing

information and knowledge.

Focusing on internal actions, responsibility towards

employees refers to all those actions aimed to promote the

welfare and the economic and social positions of the staff.

These included concessions of social (45.1%), financial

(30.5%) and health care (25.6%) benefits, like educational

grants, special sanitary services or mortgages and retirement

plans with preferential conditions. Curiously, it was

observed that the prevention of occupational hazards (35%)

was one of the most disclosed internal activities, with entities

becoming more interested in educating the staff about

healthy practices within the organization. Overall, these

actions will probably influence employees’ sense of identi-

fication with their employers since they directly determine

their satisfaction and commitment towards the entity.

An alternative way to influence this identification is through

the implication of the staff in social-oriented and charity

activities like social voluntary work (34.1%). Entities pro-

moting these practices also established alliances with non-

governmental associations to monitor these activities, thus

making employees and NGOs feel more connected to the

firm since they may perceive that they share values with

the organization.

As regards to the environmental responsibility, six cat-

egories were found. These included actions like the specific

development of actions against the climate change

(51.2%); the implementation of internal norms to promote

internal sustainable behaviours (47.6%); the adoption of

environmental guidelines (39%); the finance of environ-

mental projects (46.3%); the commercialization of finan-

cial products positioned as sustainable (25.6%) and actions

aimed to the development of rural areas (25.6%). Inter-

nally, some entities used environmental actions to increase

employees’ identification by implementing environmental

education courses and internal communicational cam-

paigns to promote desirable recycling or saving supplies

behaviours within the entity. Externally, some initiatives

involved customers’ child participation in environmental

activities or theatre plays involving green issues, and

courses on nature and sustainability aimed to the clients.

However, a tendency was also found in smaller entities that

affirmed the need for divest in renewable energies as a

result of the financial crisis.

In reference to the community CSR, the most commonly

displayed information was related to research and devel-

opment (0.51) that covered agreements with universities

and actions to support research and technological devel-

opment, like scholar grants. Health and sanitary actions

(0.53), with initiatives aimed to senior age or people with

disabilities or serious illness, were also frequently dis-

closed by entities to promote good citizenship image.

Additional areas were related to the sponsorship and

CSR

SUPPLIERS

0.26

CUSTOMERS

0.52COMMUNITY

0.49

EMPLOYEES

0.34

ENVIRONMENT

0.39

Responsible Purchases

26.8%

Codes of ethics

25.6%

Customer involvement

34.1%

Security recommendations

86.6&

Security actions

73.2%

Physical accessibility

23.2%

Accessibility to communications

53.7%

Financial inclusion

45.1%

Research and Development

0.51

Social Integration

0.45

Health

0.53

Culture

0.48Social benefits for employees

45.1%

Employees’ Social

voluntary work

34.1%

Special financial

conditions for employees

30.5%

Health care special benefits

for the staff

25.6%

Prevention of occupational

hazards

35%

Actions against climate change

51.2%

Responsible practices within the

organization

47.6%

Adoption of environmental

guidelines

39%

Financing environmental

projects

46.3%

Sustainable financial products

25.6%

Promoting rural development

25.6%

Research support

57.3%

Publication and editorial services

54.9%

Collaboration with Universities

56.1%

Information and Incentive actions of

CSR

46.1%

Support to entrepreneurship

45.1%

Assistance and social integration

59.8%

International Solidarity

56.1%

Affordable housing policy

19.5%

Health care support

56.1%

Care for people with disabilities

62.1%

Actions aimed to senior age

42.1%

Historical and artistic heritage conservation

52.4%

Concerts

57.3%

Exhibitions and conferences

64.6%

Libraries

24.3%

Actions to support young talents

35.6%

Sports Development

52.4%

Competitions

42.8%

Fig. 1 Dimensions of CSR


123

promotion of cultural and leisure events (0.48), like con-

certs, support to talented youngsters, preservation of his-

torical and cultural heritage, the sponsorship of sports

associations or events, etc. Also, a sub-dimension regard-

ing social integration of disadvantaged sectors of society

(0.45) was found with actions aimed to prevent social

exclusion, international solidarity or the adoption of poli-

cies to promote affordable mortgages to disadvantaged

families. Given the nature of these activities, CSR may

serve as a vehicle to create links with the communities and

to create a sense of proximity towards certain sectors of the

society, creating a good citizenship image. Evidently, some

of these causes enjoy more coverage because the impact

that it can create in the local and global communities varies

depending on the nature and scope of the ground.

The most referenced dimension of CSR was related to

different ways of customer’s participation in the bank’s

strategy and actions. Within this area, it was shown that most

organizations offered information about safeguarding rec-

ommendations to increase transactions’ security (86.6%),

like courses about online security, and about specific safe-

guarding actions (73.2%), like insurances to cover electronic

frauds or the reinforcement of the security into the physical

offices to prevent robbery. Online safety was frequently

certified with the adhesion to ISO/IEC 27001 norm. Specific

actions aimed to improve physical barriers in the branches

(23.2%), and online accessibility (53.7%), were also fre-

quently communicated. These included, not only different

versions of the website adapted to different disabilities like

visual ones, but also modifications of the internal design of

the office to facilitate access to the organization of people

with mobility disabilities and to avoid architectonic barriers.

An additional element displayed in websites was the infor-

mation about financial inclusion for customers with scarcity

of resources (45.1%). A clear manifestation of this policy

was shown in the recruitment of employees from different

nationalities to provide enhanced financial services to

immigrants and contribute to social integration of people

from other countries. Besides, some banks stated their

commitment towards social integration in the concession of

micro-credits with special conditions to these families.

Finally, another category reflected customer involvement

with social and financial initiatives (34.1%). These catego-

ries reflected the banks interest into making the clients par-

ticipants in their decision-making processes, increasing

interactivity and engagement in the company–customer

interface.

CSR and Organizational Variables: Differences

Between Entities

To respond to RQ3 and explore the type of institutions

more prone to construct communicated identities through

CSR, different analyses, based on group comparisons, were

conducted. These included mean differences t tests when

the variables shown normality and non-parametric

approaches when the condition of normality could not be

confirmed. Besides, to confirm groups’ comparisons find-

ings, a cluster procedure was developed. Thus, in an initial

step, financial institutions were classified in terms of their

economic activity (banks vs. savings banks), their degree

of specialization (specialized banking vs. unspecialized

banking), the scope (local vs. national vs. international

banking) and country of origin (Spanish vs. foreign banks).

In the case of banks, differences were also calculated based

on whether or not the entity was listed on the stock market.

Finally, the effect of organizational size, measured in terms

of the entities’ number of employees, total assets and

number of offices, on CSR information was examined. The

normality of the CSR dimensions was calculated with

software SPSS in order to employ non-parametric tests if

required. Due to the many test developed according to six

different organizational variables, the Bonferroni correc-

tion was introduced with the purpose of reducing type

I error rate. Thus, the adjusted level of significance of

reference had to be established as 0.05/6 = 0.0083 (see

Tables 3, 4 and 5).

Table 3 reports CSR disclosure differences between

banks and savings institutions. It shows that, with the

exception of the suppliers’ and employees’ dimensions,

savings banks publish more information regarding social

issues than banks. This finding is not surprising since savings

banks have a social origin while banks have been guided by

an economic orientation. What is surprising is that differ-

ences in certain categories are quite large, especially in the

CSR aimed to the community. In a situation, when social and

economic divergences between these types of entities are

becoming really minimal and consumers tend to find no

differences between entities, savings banks are more likely to

construct a corporate identity based on social principles.

Additional tests presented in Table 4, showed a lower

propensity to publish CSR information from entities spe-

cialized in the supply of a specific financial activity or

service, like personal banking or business banking. All the

performed tests revealed that specialized banks were not so

intense in the publication of social activities, with the

exception of suppliers CSR. Findings also indicated that

listed banks disclosed more information about their social

activities and that Spanish entities were more interested

into reporting community-focused activities, supporting

cultural, sports and leisure events. However, no significant

differences were found among national and international

organizations. Correlation analyses revealed positive and

significant coefficients between most of the dimensions of

CSR and the different measures of corporate size (Table 5).

This finding suggests that larger entities, more visible for

138 R. Bravo et al.

123

stakeholders and externally exposed, are more interested in

disclosing CSR information in order to legitimate behav-

iours and be recognized as good citizens.

A cluster analysis was developed in order to comple-

ment the study of the differences between entities. Findings

reinforced the initial results but revealed some particu-

lar differences. A hierarchical procedure followed by a

k-means method, shown the existence of three groups with

different punctuations on the different dimensions of CSR

(Fig. 2). Cluster 1 includes a group of 27 banks that, while

presenting high scores in the CSR community’s dimensions

and actions aimed to the customers, present low scores in

environmental, suppliers and employees’ CSR. Cluster 2

includes 23 entities with the highest scores in most

dimensions of CSR with the exception of health and cul-

tural actions. Finally, cluster 3 presents the lowest scores in

all the dimensions of CSR and is composed of 32 entities.

Analyzing the composition of these groups in terms of

the organizational variables interesting results were

revealed (Table 4). Cluster 1 is formed by most of med-

ium-size savings banks that provide general financial ser-

vices, with a national scope and that have their origin in the

Spanish territory. These entities are characterized by ori-

enting their CSR actions to the community, since it is

dictated in their constitution statutes, but do not go beyond

these social obligations. Cluster 2, on the contrary, includes

the top-socially oriented banks and savings banks, with

high scores in all the dimensions of CSR, and characterized

by being the largest banks of the sample. Banks in this

group had an international focus, are present in the stock

exchange, with some of them with an international origin,

while savings banks in this cluster involve all those entities

that go beyond the community’s expectations with a

national scope and origin. Finally, cluster 3 involves

national and foreign banks that provide specialized finan-

cial services and characterized by a small size (Table 6).

Conclusions, Limitations and Future Research

This study explores the role of CSR as a dimension of the

corporate identity, analyzing the CSR information disclosed

by Spanish financial entities through their websites. Besides,

it also assesses which are the most relevant CSR dimensions

employed to create a communicated identity and identifies

the existence of different profiles of entities according to

CSR reporting. This article contributes to fill a gap in the

literature since it links the concepts of CSR and corporate

identity analyzing all the online information disclosed by the

population of commercial and savings banks in the Spanish

context. Besides, this article addresses a major limitation

present in previous studies since it does not focus on large

and successful banks and banking groups which have a great

visibility and are subject to the scrutiny of a great variety of

stakeholders. On the contrary, this article focuses on a large

population of financial entities with different organizational

features, orientations and commercial motivations and that

are specialized in providing different services.

Overall, findings confirm the relevance of CSR reporting

in this sector and its importance in the creation and com-

munication of a corporate identity. However, results indi-

cate that while most financial institutions effectively

employ the website as a channel to inform about CSR

actions and, therefore, to construct a communicated iden-

tity, fewer are the organizations that consider social and

ethical principles within their corporate statements. Thus,

although we can state that CSR contributes to the formation

of the corporate identity, most organizations use it to create

a communicated identity mainly as a results of organiza-

tional interest into aligning their corporate behaviour to the

society’s expectations. However, results also reveal how

certain financial institutions intend to create a real and

differential identity through the implementation of ethical

and social values, like ‘social responsibility’, ‘ethics’ or

‘sustainable growth’, within the corporate mission, vision

and values, thus emphasizing banks’ effort in institution-

alizing these principles as corporate guides of the internal

culture, strategy and decisions. In these cases, CSR should

not be considered as a peripheral value of corporate iden-

tity, but as a core element that reveals the ethos of the

company that directly determines the nature of its corporate

identity and the way this identity is externally revealed

(Maignan and Ralston 2002). In any case, the internal

integration and dissemination of these elements across all

departments and organizational members, but also its

external manifestation through marketing and corporate

Table 3 CSR information differences between banks and savings

banks

CSR dimension Banks Savings

banks

Sig.

Customers CSRa 0.38 0.67 p \ 0.0083

Employees CSRa 0.25 0.43 p = 0.04

Environmental CSR 0.28 0.50 p \ 0.0083

Suppliers CSR 0.22 0.31 p = 0.26

Community CSR 0.21 0.80 p \ 0.0083

Research and development

CSR

0.27 0.77 p \ 0.0083

Social integration CSR 0.21 0.70 p \ 0.0083

Health CSR 0.18 0.90 p \ 0.0083

Culture and leisure CSR 0.17 0.81 p \ 0.0083

Adjusted significance level (Bonferroni correction) = 0.0083a Non-normal variables. Non-parametric Mann–Whitney test performed

Bold values indicate significant differences between groups


123

communications, could be critical for the successful

externalization of a social identity by which different

constituencies may feel identified with. However, it should

be highlighted the dominance of statements related to value

creation and customer-centric aspects in the banks’ mis-

sion, vision and values.

Table 4 Results of the analysis of CSR in terms of the organizational characteristics

CSR dimension Specialized Non-specialized Sig.

Customers CSRa 0.28 0.57 p \ 0.0083

Employees CSRa 0.02 0.40 p \ 0.0083

Environmental CSR 0.08 0.45 p \ 0.0083


Community CSR 0.07 0.58 p \ 0.0083

Research and development CSR 0.12 0.59 p \ 0.0083

Social integration CSR 0.05 0.52 p \ 0.0083

Health CSR 0.08 0.62 p \ 0.0083

Culture and leisure CSR 0.04 0.52 p \ 0.0083

CSR dimension International National Sig.

Customers CSRa 0.53 0.52 p = 0.88


Environmental CSR 0.44 0.36 p = 0.37


Community CSR 0.44 0.52 p = 0.40

Research and development CSR 0.48 0.53 p = 0.56

Social integration CSR 0.47 0.44 p = 0.80

Health CSR 0.45 0.57 p = 0.25

Culture and leisure CSR 0.41 0.52 p = 0.26

CSR dimension Spanish Foreign Sig.



Environmental CSR 0.39 0.38 p = 0.97


Community CSR 0.54 0.22 p < 0.0083

Research and development CSR 0.56 0.27 p = 0.01


Health CSR 0.58 0.25 p = 0.01

Culture and leisure CSR 0.54 0.14 p < 0.0083

CSR dimension Non-listed Listed Sig.


Employees CSRa 0.06 0.37 p < 0.0083

Environmental CSR 0.07 0.41 p < 0.0083


Community CSR 0.06 0.30 p < 0.0083

Research and development CSR 0.09 0.38 p < 0.0083


Health CSR 0.04 0.27 p < 0.0083

Culture and leisure CSR 0.03 0.27 p < 0.0083

Adjusted significance level (Bonferroni correction) = 0.0083a Non-normal variables. Non-parametric Mann–Whitney test performed

Bold values indicate significant differences between groups

140 R. Bravo et al.

123

As regards to the formation of the communicated

identity, findings suggest that most companies articulate

their CSR actions depending on the stakeholder target the

action is aimed to. Results are similar to previous studies

that identified similar dimensions. For example, Castelo

and Lima (2006), who examined reports of all Portuguese

banks, obtained similar categories of CSR disclosure that

had scores equivalent to those of our study. In their study,

Portuguese banks were more intense in the online publi-

cation of community involvement and customer-focused

actions and were less intense in environmental and human

resources categories. However, two main insights are

derived from this study if compare it with Castelo and

Lima’s (2006) findings. The first is related to the emer-

gence of the suppliers’ dimensions, since almost 26% of

the banks reported information about the existence of codes

of ethics or the preference towards suppliers that met cer-

tain social and ethical norms. The second is the consider-

ation of the community dimension as a multidimensional

construct itself. While previous research included it as a

general dimension reflecting organizational interest in

creating welfare for the community, content analysis sug-

gests that there are multiple ways to do it. Therefore,

community orientation seems to be not considered as a

holistic construct itself but the analysis of CSR disclosures

should take into account the multiple and different stake-

holders that companies include within this category. In any

case, the coherence of this study’s results with Castelo and

Lima’s (2006) could be explained because of cultural

similarities between Spanish and Portuguese organizations

and markets, with financial entities granting similar

importance to the same set of CSR categories.

In addition, differences among stakeholders’ coverage

have been found, with banking institutions especially

interested in activities aimed to their customers and the

community. In the current situation of financial crisis and

the subsequent loss of credibility that this industry has

experienced, it is not surprising that banks concede pref-

erence to more visible CSR actions. Community and

Table 5 Correlations among CSR dimensions and organizational

size

CSR dimension Employees Assets Offices

Customers CSR 0.44* 0.35* 0.45*

Employees CSR 0.58* 0.49* 0.57*

Environmental CSR 0.53* 0.47* 0.52*

Suppliers CSR 0.54* 0.48* 0.49*

Community CSR 0.39* 0.31* 0.41*

Research and development CSR 0.44* 0.37* 0.45*

Social integration CSR 0.45* 0.36* 0.46*

Health CSR 0.22* 0.16 0.27*

Culture and leisure CSR 0.35* 0.28* 0.35*

* Correlations significant at p \ 0.0083

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

Cluster 1

Cluster 2

Cluster 3

Fig. 2 Cluster analysis: profiles of banks in CSR dimensions

Table 6 Organizational characteristics of clusters

Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3

Type of entity Banks Savings Banks Savings Banks Savings

1 26 9 14 32 0

Specialization Specialized Non-specialized Specialized Non-specialized Specialized Non-specialized

0 27 0 23 13 19

Scope National International National International National International

24 3 10 13 12 20

Stock market Listed Non-listed Listed Non-listed Listed Non-listed

1 0 9 0 16 16

Origin Spanish Foreign Spanish Foreign Spanish Foreign

27 0 20 3 20 12

Employees 1,744 7,339 498

Assets 13,438,015 118,487,563 16,092,706

Assets are expressed in thousands of Euros

Figures indicate the number of entities included in the clusters


123

consumer-focused actions seem to be preferred to exter-

nalize the corporate behaviour while internal and supplier-

focused activities are seen as less determinant decisions to

change the external stakeholders’ perceptions on the firm.

In any case, this fact does not necessarily mean that banks

devote more CSR actions to customers than to other

stakeholders; it only means that financial entities are more

prone to make more visible these types of actions through

CSR reporting.

Consumer-centric activities allow companies to make

clients involved in the service creation process and con-

tribute to the generation of a bi-directional communication

process by which individual may feel more satisfied with

the services provider. These actions directly determine

current and prospective consumers’ perceptions on the

entity since they will receive messages emphasizing the

value of the services received. Since customer activities

involve the establishment of a partnership that focuses on

understanding and satisfying customers’ needs, financial

entities can find in this dimension an effective mechanism

to retain clients and attract prospective customers. As

regards to the community actions, this dimension involves

different types of activities, with heterogeneous natures and

scopes, that can help entities to create strong links with

socially excluded and disadvantaged groups and, in general

terms, to promote social development. They generate

immediate and visible benefits for local and global com-

munities that will allow banks to build up a good corporate

citizenship image in the short term and a strong reputation

in the long term.

The low values observed for the employees’ and the

suppliers’ dimensions may be explained by its low external

visibility and its reduced potential to create a positive

image towards external audiences, but also because of the

ineffectiveness of the website as a channel to create strong

relationships with groups of these natures. As suggested by

previous research, communication with audiences requires

the utilization of different methods and channels to engage

stakeholders in the CSR strategy-making process, like

internal communications or strategic conversations (Miles

et al. 2006). Messages for employees mainly concentrate

on the concession of special benefits for them and their

families what can attract future applicants and promote an

image of responsibility towards employees. The responsi-

bility towards suppliers reflects the banks desire for

emphasizing the inclusion of social and environmental

criteria in their purchases. These statements serve not only

to make suppliers feel identified with the entity’s goals and

values, but also to externally reflect a social identity

towards the value chain. On the other hand, environmental

reporting, despite previous research recognizes it as an

effective way to promote a responsible identity (Biloslavo

and Trnavcevic 2009) seems to be scarcely accepted maybe

because the service nature of banks makes them to be

perceived as low impacting firms. However, this respon-

sibility is reflected in some banks’ interest in investing in

projects related to environmental causes and through the

commercialization of financial products by which clients

can finance investments related to sustainability. In general

terms, it was also observed that successful mechanisms for

the implementation of CSR activities included NGO’s as

collaborative partnerships or advisors in order to create

additional links with these constituencies and acquiring

social legitimization.

Organizational characteristics have been identified as

predictors of the importance that CSR has in the manifes-

tation of a bank’s identity. The social origin of Spanish

savings banks explains the reason why this type of entities

discloses more information in the World Wide Web

regarding social, charitable and philanthropic issues.

However, cluster analysis reveals that larger and listed

banks occupy top positions in CSR reporting and that

medium savings banks are characterised by being more

intensive in the reporting of community-focused actions.

These findings suggest that, despite the social origin of

savings banks and the economic-driven orientation of

banks, the gap between the social behaviour of these

entities is becoming less visible. Indeed, while during the

last years banks have been more interested in informing

about their CSR actions, savings banks have been forced to

abandon some of their social aspirations and to modify

their management systems in order to refinance their cap-

itals and solve cash-flow problems. This process is result-

ing in mergers of savings banks that have been constituted

in new banks driven by economic motivations instead of

social and charitable objectives. However, despite the sit-

uation of reconversion of the savings banks, they seem to

maintain their social identities investing in more visible

activities in order to promote social development in local

communities. Findings also suggest that smaller and spe-

cialized entities adopt customer-centric identities and that,

maybe because of their corporate objectives and of their

resources limitations, CSR is not a critical issue for its

success and it is not seen as a relevant determinant of

corporate identity. As regards to the banks’ presence in the

stock market, it is surprising that while Castelo and Lima

(2006) reported that only the community involvement

category was important in differentiating between online

disclosure practices of listed and unlisted banks, this study

shows significant differences in all the CSR dimensions

with the exception of customer and suppliers-focused

actions. This finding could be indicating that nowadays the

website is a relevant media not only to target different

audiences, but also to connect the firm with investors and

stockholders. Indeed, it is usually employed to display

annual reports, mainly aimed at these types of stakeholders,

142 R. Bravo et al.

123

that include information concerning the banks’ social

actuations that can affect the investors’ perceptions and

attitudes towards the organization.

The main limitation of the study consists in the con-

sideration of a controllable communication channel to

investigate corporate identity. Although this channel may

allow us to analyze the communicated identity, it is not

necessarily reflecting a real identity. Thus, the analysis of

the corporate statements should be completed with quali-

tative and quantitative information from the internal envi-

ronmental of the organization that would allow researchers

to assess how CSR and ethical principles determine the real

identity. As previously noted, findings reveal certain

coincidences with previous research focused on analyzing

banks of countries with cultural similarities (Castelo and

Lima 2006). However, other authors report that firms in

different countries do not display the same eagerness to

appear as socially responsible and employ diverse mecha-

nisms to reveal themselves as socially oriented. Thus, the

natural extension of this research should also adopt an

international approach in order to analyze differences in

CSR reporting among financial entities in different coun-

tries and cultures. As financial entities are becoming more

global, it should be interesting to focus on the differ-

ent dimension of CSR across countries and explore if

CSR importance for corporate identity and influence on

stakeholders perceptions varies depending on the nation

considered. From a methodological approach, the multidi-

mensionality of the CSR should encourage further research

in the design and development of instruments to measure

this concept. As previously noted, the importance attached

to every dimension may be relative since the impact of

CSR activities on stakeholders’ evaluations is differential

(McDonald and Rundle-Thiele 2008). As suggested by

Auger et al. (2006), stakeholders, like customers, may rank

CSR activities developed by companies, establishing

hierarchies of preferences towards the nature of these

actions. Indeed, activities with an international scope, like

politics against children labour or supporting employee

diversity, will probably generate a more favourable market

response than product design and community support

initiatives.

In summary, from an academic standpoint, this article

confirms the role that CSR plays in the formation and

communication of an organization’s identity, identifies the

main dimensions of this concept in the financial services

industry, and points at the main organizational character-

istics as determinants of CSR. From a practitioner per-

spective, findings confirm the relevance that nowadays

CSR has in the sector and offers a tool for managers in the

industry to evaluate the situation of their entities and

compare them with their main competitors.

Appendix

See Table 7.

Table 7 Financial institutions included in the study

Banks Savings Banks

Name Employees Origin Name Employees Origin

Santander 20,862 Spain CAM 7,416 Spain

BBVA 27,466 Spain Caja de Avila 662 Spain

Banesto 9,527 Spain Caja de Badajoz 956 Spain

Popular 10,541 Spain La Caixa 26,032 Spain

Sabadell 9,929 Spain BBK 2,481 Spain

Bankinter 4,096 Spain Caja Circulo Burgos 737 Spain

Barclays 4,256 UK Caja de Burgos 935 Spain

Pastor 4,019 Spain Caja de Extremadura 1,213 Spain

Valencia 2,197 Spain Cajasur 3,097 Spain

Deutsche Bank 2,716 Germany Caixa Galicia 4,772 Spain

Guipuzcoano 1,288 Spain CCM 3,222 Spain

March 1,505 Spain Caixa de Girona 1,132 Spain

Dexia Sabadell 50 Various Caja Granada 2,443 Spain

Banif 619 Spain Caja de Guadalajara 310 Spain

Gallego 999 Spain Caja Espana 3,220 Spain

G.E. Money Bank 586 USA Caja Rioja 513 Spain

Cooperativo Espanol 198 Spain Caja Madrid 14,134 Spain

Caixa Geral 1,040 Various Unicaja 4,698 Spain


123

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