Social responsibility, responsible external communication and marketing in large companies. A comparative study of Spain and Portugal

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study titled “Social Responsibility, Responsible External Communication and Marketing in Large Companies: A Comparative Study of Spain and Portugal” which was conducted between 2012 and 2015 in order to understand multinationals’ intended use of responsible external communication, taking Spain and Portugal as a comparative model. The research reflects on the need to answer some fundamental questions: are most social responsibility actions carried out by companies a result of a shift in organizational mentality or are they a reflection of pure economic interest? Are these social marketing actions or those from which arise from the development of a socially responsible perspective resulting from environmental, local or national factors? To explore these areas a qualitative study was conducted to answer these questions, which used similar-sized companies located in Spain and Portugal as the subjects.