Measurement tool to assess the relationship between corporate social responsibility, training practices and business performance

Socially responsible actions are increasingly required of companies and are seen as a valid response to new challenges in contemporary societies. These substantial challenges encourage the development of best practices within organisations, requiring extensive verification and analysis of these practices' influence and impact. The objective of this paper is to define and present the validation of a set of scales for the measurement of social responsibility, training practices and performance in companies. This approach facilitates a better understanding of the competitive advantages of implementing these practices. To achieve this objective, the scales of measurement were defined based on the adoption of responsible business behaviours and, concurrently, their observed relationship to training practices and business performance. The results obtained substantiate measurement scales with a total of 26 indicators, which were validated with companies from the Portuguese tourism industry. The discussion of the results shows that these agree with previous research in the literature on the importance of the topics under study. This paper's conclusions are in accordance with theoretical currents in this area, reinforcing findings of the benefits of companies' practices in training and other relevant areas. Finally, the study provides scales adapted to the day-to-day realities of businesses in their natural contexts.