Among the various forces that have been reshaping the global competitive landscape, the growing attention to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the most noteworthy trends (Yin & Jamali, 2016). CSR is gradually more viewed as a global issue though there remains terrific variation in both the focus and the level of CSR across the countries, especially in developing countries (Forcadell & Aracil, 2017).

Nowadays, the enterprises that employ globalization and internationalization strategies in their search for new markets and cost efficiencies can lead to Human Rights abuses and negative environmental impacts. Hence, CSR can become a powerful instrument to reduce these negative effects (Jamali & Neville, 2011). However, the majority of studies carried out so far note that CSR remains a concept dominated by Western frames, nuances and connotations as presented in mainstream management and business literature (Jamali & Karam, 2016).

On the one hand, within the various industries, more and more companies are focusing on CSR as a response to public pressure to put social concerns on their agenda. One of these industries is the agribusiness sector. Agribusiness firms, have been confronted with numerous conflicts with society related to negative formalities of food production; moral concerns; and other health-related issues (Gill & Mathur, 2018).

Hence, Agribusiness has come under close public scrutiny and suffered increasing public criticism as a result of various recent crises in developed countries (Luhmann & Theuvsen, 2017) and developing countries such as child labor, labor exploitation; and environment degradation (Gill & Mathur, 2018). This perceived pressure on CSR has the potential to become a mechanism for improving working conditions (Voegtlin & Greenwood, 2016). Moreover, sustainability in agribusiness production and trade is increasingly a focus of development, environmental conservation and responsible business (Nelson & Phillips, 2018).

On the other hand, it is especially important to investigate CSR practices in developing countries because of the pervasive institutional voids that characterize these settings (Pisani et al., 2017). The heterogeneous socioeconomic, historical and political realities of developing countries provide for unique forms of responsible business as well as tailored adaptations of globally dominant CSR practices to local contexts (Jamali et al., 2017).

Hence, research interest in CSR in developing countries is on the rise (Xun, 2013). However, no studies have been found linking CSR to agribusiness in developing countries, despite the fact that these are one of the most important sources of economic income in these countries.

The relationship between CSR and the economic performance of companies has been studied extensively (e.g. Chen et al., 2015; Gallardo-Vázquez & Sánchez-Hernández, 2014). Even though some studies suggest that a direct relationship does not exist between CSR and Performance (Heyder & Theuvsen, 2012), others (e.g. Briones-Peñalver et al., 2018) have shown a positive relationship between CSR and economic performance in agribusiness.

In recent years, the agribusiness sector has invested in technological solutions such as geo-positioning applications, artificial intelligence systems, automated products processing and preservation systems especially products with relatively shorter shelf-life, livestock tracking systems (Ibrahim et al., 2018). Innovation management allows companies to respond rapidly to the environment, improving their decision-making processes, and finally their results (Ariño et al., 2014).

Globalization has increased the imperative not only to adopt innovations but also to organize these cross-border, inter-firm agreements efficiently, and this has led to a cross-fertilization of ideas from a variety of fields, including international business and management (Martínez-Noya & Narula, 2018). The need for flexibility, capacity development and other resources are drivers to formalize cooperation agreements among companies (Martins et al., 2017).

Agribusinesses are no strangers to this type of collaboration as some studios show (Lynch et al., 2018). This cooperation promotes sustainable development, since besides economic benefits, it contributes to conserving the landscape, job creation and preserving traditions (Días & Franco, 2018).

Further research is needed on the economic foundations of development cooperation based on trust, accountability and shared values (SV), best practices and the link to desired societal outcomes, such as sustainable development goals. Agribusiness can come together to make joint commitments to a shared development agenda, and where stakeholders hold themselves and others accountable for meeting these commitments (Franklin & Oehmke, 2019).

Since the late 1990s, governments and development agencies have enthusiastically embraced market-based approaches, including shared value chain development (SV), (Donovan et al., 2018). This type of SV has been defined as a “positive or desirable change in a value chain to extend or improve productive operations and create social benefits: poverty reduction, income generation and job creation, economic growth, environmental performance, gender equity and other development goals” (Devaux et al., 2018).

Latin-American agribusiness sector is a major contributor to most of the region’s domestic product, exports and labor force employment. Additionally, the region is a major supply source for feeding the world. In this light, it is worthwhile investing in improving the sector’s competitiveness (Geldes et al., 2015).

Costa Rica has a stable political system, favorable prospects for long-term economic growth, relatively high social development, growth sustained of exports and people with relatively high job qualifications. However, the different scenarios in which economic and financial evolution is taking place are highly complex. In consequence, multiple stakeholders develop a variety of interrelationships with each other, which, in turn, affect the enterprise-stakeholders-CSR links (Masis Solano et al., 2016).

Therefore, the aim of this article is to analyze the influence of CSR on the performance the agribusiness located in Costa Rica and how this can have a positive effect on cooperation and innovation in order to create shared value(SV), since CSR and SV have much in common (Jamali & Carroll, 2017).

For theses aims the work is divided into four sections. First, theoretical and empirical contributions related to the relationships between the variables that are included in the research model are reviewed. Second, methodology employed to test the model is described. Third, results are presented, followed by conclusions and discussion of the results. This final section also highlights the main implications for future research.

The prevailing focus of international CSR research is, on the one hand, on relatively broader international issues that deal with the global business context and, on the other hand, on CSR-related matters that specifically concern multinational enterprises (MNEs) policies (Pisani et al., 2017). In this way, there is a lot of literature that analyze CSR in developing countries but from Western frames (e.g. García-Sánchez et al., 2013). Noting these important advances and the shifting focus to CSR in developing countries, one of the areas that have received relatively less attention within this broad research agenda pertains to the role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in CSR. SMEs have been recognized to contribute notably to job creation and poverty alleviation in developing countries, given their labor-intensive production processes and significant employment growth rates (Jamali, Lund-Thomsen et al., 2017).

In developed countries, the concerns of specific stakeholders such as regulators, shareholders, creditors, investors, environmentalists and the media are considered very important in disclosing CSR information. In developing countries, CSR reporting is more greatly influenced by the external forces/powerful stakeholders for instance, foreign investors, international buyers, international media and international regulatory bodies (Ali et al., 2017). To date, there is no country with an obligation for sustainable development reporting; nonetheless, Brazil was the leader in Latin America with 135 sustainability reports in 2010, in contrast with Costa Rica where only three reports were published, one of them by a company that produces beer, fruit-based drinks, bottled water, natural fruit drinks (Hoeltl et al., 2013). In fact, it was considered that CSR was stagnated in Central America and the Caribbean (Shah et al., 2016).

Furthermore, in contrast to the attitudes in developed countries, firms in developing countries perceive relatively little pressure from the public with regards to CSR disclosure (Ali et al., 2017). Market stakeholder influences are stronger in developed countries, whereas regulatory and social stakeholder influences do not differ significantly between the two country groups. The relationship between CSR practices and positive business outcomes is stronger in emerging than in developed countries (Doegl & Behnam, 2015).

Although most academic research engages with large economies, some hardy researchers have ventured to investigate CSR in some developing countries (Shah et al., 2016), although in sector specific contexts, for instance Robinson (2010) analyzed CSR in Costa Rica´s banana industry. In the last years, small, medium and big companies from Costa Rica have intensified their interest in CSR. Given the sustainability and survival growing urgency in modern society, commercial activity assumes responsible and integral actions on the country development (Martínez-Villavicencio et al., 2015).

Costa Rica has a long history of state involvement in both social and economic development and the nation’s stable yet diverse economy, which includes agricultural, technology and tourism industries, ensures a relatively high standard of living in the region (Robinson, 2010). According to Masis Solano et al. (2016), CSR is already implementing actions with results that reflect the relevance of a strategic and cross-cutting approach to CSR in the organization.

Costa Rica also makes for an interesting country to situate the study as it has a tradition of state-led policies to protect worker rights (Robinson, 2010), which links directly with the social dimension of the RSC since CSR addresses specific issues related to human rights, business practices, communications, and community participation (AENOR, 2012).

In Costa Rica, income from exports of bananas, cocoa, sugar, pineapple and coffee remains significant, although there are other sources of income in the export of non-traditional crops such as flowers and mini-vegetables. In addition, an expansion of the agribusiness services sector has been detected. Therefore, the sample is made up of 72 agribusiness SEMs distributed as follows (table 1). The data was collected through a questionnaire delivered in situ with the response rate of 25.35% (table 2).

Table 1 Table 1 Business distribution Source: Own elaboration Note:

The table shows the distribution of the businesses and it can be seen that more than 50% corresponds to businesses selling fruits and vegetables, followed by coffee production.

Table 2 Table 2 Technical Data-Sheet Source: Own elaboration Note:

The table shows the sample size on a total population of 284 agribusinesses. We consider that a 25% response is in accordance with this type of investigation, since it usually gives between 20% and 30% of responses

The capital is intensive in the labor force employed in various activities of fruit and vegetables crops and where casual workers are temporarily hired. For this reason, we believe that the size of firm may not be a clear determinant for the implementation of CSR policies.

To prepare for this study’s analysis of the relationships between the constructs shown in Figure 1, a specific questionnaire was designed using a Likert-type five-point scale (i.e. 1 = ‘totally disagree’ and 5 = ‘strongly agree’). The original questionnaire included 26 items related to CSR, innovation, competitiveness and performance in line with used surveys in other studies (e.g. Briones-Peñalver et al., 2018; Heyder & Theuvsen, 2012). However, only 17 items were used in this study, as can be seen in table 3 after process of refinement which is described further on.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to investigate the conceptual relationship model and explain the associations among variables. A SEM really consists of both a measurement model and a structural model (Joe F. Hair Jr et al., 2014). This ensures that we have adequate indicators of constructs before attempting to reach conclusions concerning the hypotheses. The technique used within SEM is known as PLS (Partial Least Squares). PLS-SEM estimates the parameters of a set of equations in a structural equation model by combining principal components analysis with regression-based path analysis (Sarstedt et al., 2017) and the software used was SmartPLS 3.0.

CSR in developing countries is an emerging field of study (Jamali & Karam, 2016); however the main studies have been carried out in Western contexts. This study aims to correct this Western bias given that carries out an empirical and reliable exploration in a developing country through fieldwork in different regions of Costa Rica. Agribusiness in developing countries must comply with demands in terms of quality and training with greater added value and minimization of environmental impacts. Part of these demands lie in the strategy of CSR by social dimension through the labor conditions of employees according to productivity and their job security in order to achieve a competitive and sustainable development of agribusiness. In this way, agribusiness managers should consider the opinions of suppliers and suggestions from clients in order to obtain value-added products, turned into the main engine of social development compatible with conservation and proper use of natural resources.

Agribusinesses in Costa Rica have very different structures, from large producers with links to multinationals, to small farmers related to agricultural production of reduced scale at local level. In this sense, agribusinesses generate activities that help to reduce rural poverty in developing countries.

Nowadays, the private sector is becoming more aware of its social responsibility. This is due to the lack of capacity in some countries to develop technological innovations and the shortage of incentives to incorporate new production technologies in agribusiness. In this case, the private sector needs to invest in activities that produce positive returns from both private and CSR points of view, through Cooperation. These returns are achieved thanks to private innovation. Therefore, innovation is a key factor to be considered in Performance as the analysis carried out in this study shows. CSR is also representative of a firm´s modernization through cooperation, coproduction and public–private partnerships. CSR is an efficient business strategy that penetrates every innovative organization and becomes a key element in differentiating between competitors. Thus, agribusiness managers in developing countries should pay special attention to innovation factors as such highly qualified staff and investment in high production technology.

In the light of the results obtained, the relationships established in the research model are confirmed except in the case of two of them (H1 and H4). CSR encourages cooperative relations between companies. However, this cooperation does not have a clear reflection on the performance, contrary what happens in developed countries.

Reinforcement and dissipation are often simultaneous and ongoing thereby resulting in complex, messy and protracted CSR adaptations (Jamali et al., 2017). For this reason, we believe that knowledge is acquired in cooperation. However, this cooperation can be more easily adopted by multinationals that obtain benefits in a shorter period than SMEs agribusiness companies. Although for SMEs adaptation to environment and greater flexibility are among the most noteworthy factors for their cooperation, this does not have a positive effect on performance.

This raises the question how food and agribusiness MNE can best include smallholders in their sourcing strategies in order to take social responsibility for a sustainable and more equitable supply from a business perspective (Sjauw-Koen-Fa et al., 2018).

Nevertheless, CSR directly favors the performance of agribusiness. This conclusion is in line with other studies (e.g. Briones-Peñalver et al., 2018). However, the indirect influence is not so clear because CSR in developing countries has factors and values which are not considered an influence in Western companies, for example family, religious beliefs and traditions as suggest Jamali et al. (2017) and (Gill & Mathur, 2018). Therefore, this could be a future line of research.

In empirical studies, it is important to identify and consider limitations when achieving interpretations and conclusions. One of them is regarding the sample. The sample of this study is restricted to companies located only in Costa Rica and this could be seen as a restriction to a generalization of the results. However, our results are consistent. Second this study can be considered exploratory, so in-depth research could also analyze more in detail the nature of the relationship between CSR and Performance.

Through this study, our intention was to bridge the gap detected in the literature in developing countries about agribusiness companies for the implementation of CSR measures, because developing countries often present a distinctive set of CSR agenda challenges as compared to developed countries.