Corporate social responsibility and its influence on corporate reputation: evidence from the industrial sector

Purpose – Employees perceive that the company is committed to fulfilling its labor obligations, improving working conditions and fostering an environment of equality and friendliness among its members. This can serve as an incentive for employee retention and an invitation to promote these values externally, ultimately enhancing the company’s reputation. This study examined the influence of social responsibility practices on corporate reputation (the perception that stakeholders have about the company based on its actions), collecting information from employees of industrial companies to find the association of the study variables and recommend focused actions that can influence people’s behavior both in their companies and in society. Design/methodology/approach – Through a quantitative cross-sectional approach, a questionnaire based on ISO 26000 standards was administered to a sample of 254 employees from 20 industrial companies. Findings – After applying a structural equation modeling the results revealed a high level of accordance between social responsibility on corporate reputation, confirming when companies engage in responsible actions, they gain greater prestige and respect as a company. Practical implications – This improved reputation is observed by other stakeholder groups and contributes to building a stronger reputation among employees, a crucial and strategic element for achieving organizational objectives. This drives industrial organizations toward the development, study, improvement and implementation of strategies that are explanatory, differentiating and value-added, which are beneficial for the company and, at the same time, extend to other stakeholders such as consumers, suppliers, investors, employees, competitors and society in general. Originality/value – The main contribution lies in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate reputation from theoretical and practical aspects and the way of evaluating it since the proposed model confirms that the concept of corporate social responsibility explains that it has a positive influence on corporate reputation, specifically in companies that engage in social responsibility activities, providing in this way a critical analysis of examples of the practice of social responsibility and its assessment of its corporate reputation in the industrial sector.