Social Responsibility as a Competitive Advantage for Companies …
125
In order to elaborate the literature review of this article, we searched for publications in the “Scopus” journal base. Although the article deals with the issue of social
responsibility as a competitive advantage within cooperatives, if these three issues
were addressed in the search for publications, the number of studies found would
be extremely reduced. Thus, in the literature review the keywords “SUSTAINABILITY” AND “COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES” were used. Thus, it was possible to
understand the relevance of sustainable practices as a form of competitive advantage
and, after that, search these practices in the cooperatives’ web sites. Recalling that the
keyword “sustainability” was used, instead of social responsibility, since this article
already contemplates social responsibility thinking about sustainability. Moreover,
if the term “social responsability” had been used, the number of publications would
be almost nil.
Due to the large number of journals found, the search was divided into six stages:
• Initially the search was done with the terms “sustainability” AND “competitive
advantage”
• In the second stage, restrictions were imposed regarding language (Portuguese
and English), time (2014–2019), type of publication (articles only) and research
area (Business, management and accounting).
• As there were still many publications, those published in the Journal of Cleaner
Production were selected because of the relevance of this journal.
• It was defined that the terms “competitive advantage” and “sustainability” should
be in the Keywords
• We analyzed the number of times articles had been cited, in which case only those
with more than ten citations were chosen.
• Finally, we analyze the abstracts more deeply in order to investigate if the articles
really related to the topics sought.
In short, the search for literature review consisted in the following filters: search
for specific terms (sustainability and competitive advantage), language and time
selection, management and business restrictions, type of publication, requirement
that articles had been cited more than ten times and that the terms sustainability and
competitive advantage were included in the keywords of the articles.
To carry out the second stage of the research, information collected on the cooperatives’ websites was used, looking directly for activities related to social responsibility (sustainability). Once this was done, the information was described in the
Word tool, identifying each cooperative, whether they had social responsibility
practices and, if so, what those practices were like. The list of cooperatives can
be found at https://www.paranacooperativo.coop.br/ppc/index.php/sistema-ocepar/
2012-03-08-14-53-53/2011-12-09-10-57-09/consulta-por-ramo.
Due to the high number of cooperatives found and the limited research time, it was
decided to analyze the cooperatives that operate internationally. Thus, all agricultural
cooperatives of Paraná that operate with foreign trade were selected, being a total of
seventeen cooperatives.
125
In order to elaborate the literature review of this article, we searched for publications in the “Scopus” journal base. Although the article deals with the issue of social
responsibility as a competitive advantage within cooperatives, if these three issues
were addressed in the search for publications, the number of studies found would
be extremely reduced. Thus, in the literature review the keywords “SUSTAINABILITY” AND “COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES” were used. Thus, it was possible to
understand the relevance of sustainable practices as a form of competitive advantage
and, after that, search these practices in the cooperatives’ web sites. Recalling that the
keyword “sustainability” was used, instead of social responsibility, since this article
already contemplates social responsibility thinking about sustainability. Moreover,
if the term “social responsability” had been used, the number of publications would
be almost nil.
Due to the large number of journals found, the search was divided into six stages:
• Initially the search was done with the terms “sustainability” AND “competitive
advantage”
• In the second stage, restrictions were imposed regarding language (Portuguese
and English), time (2014–2019), type of publication (articles only) and research
area (Business, management and accounting).
• As there were still many publications, those published in the Journal of Cleaner
Production were selected because of the relevance of this journal.
• It was defined that the terms “competitive advantage” and “sustainability” should
be in the Keywords
• We analyzed the number of times articles had been cited, in which case only those
with more than ten citations were chosen.
• Finally, we analyze the abstracts more deeply in order to investigate if the articles
really related to the topics sought.
In short, the search for literature review consisted in the following filters: search
for specific terms (sustainability and competitive advantage), language and time
selection, management and business restrictions, type of publication, requirement
that articles had been cited more than ten times and that the terms sustainability and
competitive advantage were included in the keywords of the articles.
To carry out the second stage of the research, information collected on the cooperatives’ websites was used, looking directly for activities related to social responsibility (sustainability). Once this was done, the information was described in the
Word tool, identifying each cooperative, whether they had social responsibility
practices and, if so, what those practices were like. The list of cooperatives can
be found at https://www.paranacooperativo.coop.br/ppc/index.php/sistema-ocepar/
2012-03-08-14-53-53/2011-12-09-10-57-09/consulta-por-ramo.
Due to the high number of cooperatives found and the limited research time, it was
decided to analyze the cooperatives that operate internationally. Thus, all agricultural
cooperatives of Paraná that operate with foreign trade were selected, being a total of
seventeen cooperatives.