Institutionalization of the sustainable development goals in agro-industries

To analyze the relationship between the institutionalization process by isomorphic mechanisms and the adhesion of agro-industries to the sustainable development goals.

Methodology:

This is a descriptive study, with quantitative application, operationalized through a survey in a sample with 254 agri-food industries in the State of Rio Grande do Sul and by adopting the structural equation modeling technique for the measurement model and the structural model analysis.

Results:

The hypothesis that institutionalization through isomorphic mechanisms is positively associated with the implementation of sustainable development goals is confirmed, with an emphasis on the significance of all isomorphic variables analyzed, that is, coercive, normative, and mimetic isomorphism.

Research limitations and implications:

Despite the important observations found, this research has limitations regarding the adopted quantitative method, with the common method bias and the overfitting being necessary to validate the estimated model. Regarding implications, the research results contribute to the theoretical and practical subject field, opening up new possibilities for analyzing the engagement of organizations with the sustainable development goals from the institutional theory perspective.

Originality:

The study on the engagement of companies with the sustainable development goals is considered recent and lacking progress in the literature; thus, this study moves forward in understanding this phenomenon, especially on institutional issues that are decisive for the involvement of agro-industries in this sustainable development agenda.

Keywords:
Institutionalization; Sustainable development goals; Agro-industries

Institutionalization by Isomorphic Mechanisms
*Variable*	*Description*		*Affirmation*
Coercive isomorphism	Rule internalization mechanisms according to coercive, normative, or mimetic isomorphism		02
Normative isomorphism			01
Mimetic isomorphism			02
Sustainable Development Goals
*Variable* *(PEAA)*	*Description*	*Related SDG*	*Affirmation*
1) Promotion of food security, health, and nutrition	Food supply security, food safety through assurance of product quality and health, food waste	2, 3, 12	06
2) Environmental responsibility	Water management, climate change, waste and effluent, preservation of fauna and flora and soil biodiversity, environmental safety	2, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15	07
3) Economic viability and shared values	Improvement in performance, direct purchases, appreciation of producers, responsible consumption, management of suppliers and third parties	8, 9, 12	03
4) Respect for human rights, decent work, and helping communities	Human rights, diversity and inclusion, professional development, occupational health and safety, local development	1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11	15
5) Encourage good governance and accountability	Clear functional responsibilities, avoid conflicts of interest, good relationship with stakeholders, fight against corruption, risk and fraud prevention, relationship and communication with public entities and agents, regulation, and compliance	16	06
6) Promoting access and transfer of knowledge, skills and technology	Dissemination of knowledge, transfer of technology and expertise	1, 2, 9, 17	03

Dimensions (1 ^st Order)	AVE	Composite Reliability
Know	0.670	0.802
Right_dev	0.536	0.774
Iso_coercive	0.675	0.806
Iso_mimetic	0.702	0.825
Iso_normative	1	1
Env_resp	0.601	0.857
Inst_resp	0.584	0.848
Food_sec	0.508	0.803
Eco_viab	0.722	0.837
Dimensions (2 ^nd Order)
Instituc_process	0.654	0.865
SDG_PEAA	0.596	0.837

	Know	Right_dev	Iso_coercive	Iso_mimetic	Iso_normative	Env_resp	Inst_resp	Food_sec	Eco_viab
Know2	0.879	0.501	0.256	0.134	-0.014	0.196	0.525	0.327	0.347
Know3	0.752	0.281	0.099	-0.141	0.271	0.297	0.322	0.254	0.247
Right_dev	0.473	0.616	0.250	0.158	0.095	0.368	0.601	0.363	0.394
Right_dev11	0.322	0.711	0.408	0.161	-0.043	0.134	0.448	0.187	0.239
Right_dev6	0.263	0.709	0.222	0.132	0.027	0.091	0.276	0.158	0.204
Press_inst1	0.123	0.266	0.816	0.387	-0.127	0.069	0.303	0.193	0.200
Instituc1	0.253	0.337	0.827	0.190	0.127	0.267	0.521	0.409	0.271
Institutc2	-0.043	0.131	0.221	0.810	-0.131	-0.152	0.073	-0.024	-0.012
Press_inst2	0.071	0.305	0.355	0.865	-0.260	-0.102	0.202	-0.027	0.127
Institutc3	0.128	0.020	0.002	-0.239	1.000	0.311	0.142	0.147	0.065
Env_resp3	0.308	0.276	0.273	0.058	0.214	0.783	0.384	0.331	0.327
Env_resp4	0.149	0.061	-0.012	-0.361	0.436	0.692	0.190	0.252	0.252
Env_resp5	0.083	-0.061	-0.052	-0.429	0.423	0.584	0.103	0.174	0.127
Env_resp6	0.080	-0.082	-0.064	-0.412	0.361	0.564	0.052	0.181	0.135
Inst_resp3	0.332	0.429	0.330	0.210	0.041	0.246	0.748	0.282	0.299
Inst_resp4	0.435	0.340	0.112	-0.138	0.232	0.337	0.649	0.380	0.327
Inst_resp5	0.386	0.367	0.484	0.225	0.065	0.366	0.762	0.462	0.451
Inst_resp6	0.392	0.364	0.520	0.178	0.040	0.353	0.752	0.615	0.453
Food_sec2	0.257	0.247	0.260	-0.005	-0.020	0.359	0.486	0.807	0.395
Food_sec3	0.242	0.147	0.174	-0.187	0.426	0.260	0.286	0.490	0.212
Food_sec4	0.185	0.148	0.353	0.078	0.074	0.237	0.371	0.664	0.298
Food_sec6	0.207	0.168	0.177	-0.198	0.227	0.390	0.394	0.654	0.435
Eco_viab1	0.174	0.266	0.158	0.138	-0.037	0.191	0.242	0.241	0.660
Eco_viab2	0.323	0.384	0.353	0.122	-0.052	0.382	0.513	0.474	0.869

1 ^st Order	Know		Right_dev		Iso_coercive	Iso_mimetic	Iso_normative	Env_resp	Inst_resp	Food_sec	Eco_viab
Know	1
Right_dev	0.502		0.732
Iso_coercive	0.229		0.391		0.822
Iso_mimetic	0.018		0.204		0.348	0.839
Iso_normative	0.133		0.049		0.003	-0.239	1
Env_resp	0.243		0.226		0.103	-0.291	0.436	0.775
Inst_resp	0.503		0.581		0.490	0.164	0.119	0.285	0.764
Food_sec	0.311		0.310		0.339	-0.100	0.215	0.340	0.553	0.713
Eco_viab	0.308		0.373		0.325	0.147	-0.054	0.175	0.462	0.392	0.850
2 ^nd Order		Instituc_process		SDG_PEAA
Instituc_process		0.808
SDG_PEAA		0.358		0.772

Structural Relationship (+)	Structural Coefficient	Standard Error	t-Value	p-Value	Hypothesis
PROCESS_INSTITUC -> SDG_PEAA	0.440	0.101	4.352	0.01	Confirmed

Universidade Federal de Santa Maria Avenida Roraima nº 1000, Prédio 74C, Sala 4210 - Cidade Universitária - Centro de Ciências Sociais e Humanas (CCSH) - Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM), Cep: 97105-900, Tel: +55 (55) 3220-9242 - Santa Maria - RS - Brazil
E-mail: rea@ufsm.br

Acompanhe os números deste periódico no seu leitor de RSS

[1] E-mail: bianca.bigolin@ufsm.br