Title: The role of government social responsibility initiatives in creating national competitiveness: comparing the Latin American and European experiences

Authors: Xiaoyu Liu; Harrie Vredenburg

Addresses: Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada ' Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada

Abstract: To explore the role of government social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in creating national competitiveness, we adopted a comparative case study to compare the experiences in Latin America with those in Europe. We chose four countries (France, UK, Venezuela and Peru) in order to control the variances caused by culture and geography on government CSR initiatives, as well as the variances caused by country size on national competitiveness. An exploratory theoretical model is developed to explain the role. The results suggest that innovation is a mediating variable linking government CSR initiatives and national competitiveness, and this relationship is moderated by three variables: cooperation capability of the industry, industry structure and the main innovation types of a country. Specifically, the positive relationship between government CSR initiatives and innovation is moderated by organisations' cooperative capability and the positive relationship between innovation and national competitiveness is moderated by industry structure and innovation types.

Keywords: national competitiveness; innovation types; cooperation capability; industry structure; government social responsibility; corporate social responsibility; CSR initiatives; Latin American; Europe; France; UK; United Kingdom; Venezuela; Peru; culture; geography; country size.

DOI: 10.1504/LAJMSD.2014.065485

Latin American Journal of Management for Sustainable Development, 2014 Vol.1 No.2/3, pp.117 - 136

Received: 03 Jan 2014
Accepted: 22 Apr 2014

Published online: 12 Nov 2014 *

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