In recent years, we have witnessed how companies and institutions have devoted significant effort to developing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policies, basing their decision on the improvement in company results and the subsequent benefits for shareholders and other stakeholders. CSR means that managers must go beyond the mere satisfaction of the shareholders and take steps to establish balanced relations with all their stakeholders. The principles behind the CSR approach empower stakeholder governance. To test whether CSR policy constitutes a factor in value creation for shareholders and certain stakeholders such as employees, creditors and the State, we conducted an explanatory study, using a Correlated Random Effects approach, which compares the socially responsible companies included in the Spanish sustainability index, FTSE4Good Ibex, with the companies listed on the other indices of the IBEX family. On the one hand, the data show that sustainability reporting is well established in large companies in Spain but that it needs to be introduced more extensively in small and medium-sized enterprises. On the other hand, the findings point out that CSR has a positive and significant influence on the distribution of value in favor of the State, a negative influence for employees and no influence on other stakeholders.

The main objective of this research is to contribute to the economic literature on cooperative entrepreneurship as a model for sustainable development, taking into account the special alignment of the cooperative principles (ICA) with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It offers new empirical evidence from Spain, based on Stakeholder Theory, about the differences between cooperatives (Coops) and Capitalist Firms (CFs) in relation to the distribution of economic value between the different stakeholders. For this purpose, panel data was analysed using the Correlated Random Effects approach. The results reveal that cooperative firms generate value for some of the stakeholders analysed, specifically for their partners and creditors, but no significant differences have been found with CFs in terms of workers and the state. In both cases, it can be inferred that the period analysed has influenced the results, since it has been found that, first, cooperatives adjust wages downward rather than dismiss workers during a recession, which is in line with previous research, and second, that their tax contribution to the state is lower because they are subject to a more favourable tax system in Spain.

This research examines the impact of social entrepreneurship (SE) on sustainability and innovation by considering the determining factors of entrepreneurship as identified in the literature. The authors undertake an empirical analysis with structural equation modeling for ten European Union countries with supportive regulations related to SE: Belgium, Holland, Slovenia, Spain, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Romania. The data used is obtained primarily from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor-Specific report on SE (GEM), Eurostat Database, and SDG Index database. The findings show that social and economic factors are positively related to SE. The impact of SE on sustainability and innovation is also found to be positive. SE becomes an important asset by creating economic benefits through innovation and sustainable welfare. This research contributes to the gap in current empirical research. The authors identify reasons for these findings and offer some practical insights to design policies, such as an adequate legal and fiscal framework, to promote social entrepreneurship.

En el ámbito de la Inversión Socialmente Responsable (ISR) es destacable, en los últimos años, la labor de la Unión Europea (UE) por su protagonismo como principal impulsor de las inversiones verdes a través del Pacto Verde Europeo. Por otro lado, para mitigar los efectos negativos socioeconómicos derivados de la pandemia, la UE se ha convertido en uno de los principales emisores de deuda en Euros. Además de emitir bonos verdes, dentro del programa de Fondos de Recuperación Europeo, ha emitido, por primera vez, bonos sociales para financiar el programa de protección para el desempleo establecido en el reglamento UE 2020/672. En este trabajo se analizan los bonos verdes y sociales destinados a la financiación de programas medioambientales y sociales de la UE, y se comparan con los convencionales del mismo emisor, para determinar si existe una diferencia de rendimiento que nos permita inferir la existencia de una prima verde o social, según el caso, y tratar de explicarlo mediante un análisis de regresión lineal múltiple. Aunque en la literatura científica abundan los estudios sobre la prima verde, no ocurre lo mismo con la social. Entre los hallazgos de esta investigación se destacan, por un lado, que los bonos verdes y sociales con mayores niveles de liquidez, también presentan mayores rendimientos, y por otro lado, que la volatilidad implica que los inversores del mercado secundario requieran mayores tasas. Además, los bonos sociales tienen mayores diferencias de rendimiento en comparación con los verdes, lo que apunta a que, la prima social, de los bonos emitidos por la UE, es más amplia que la verde, en el mercado secundario.