VÍNCULO ENTRE RESPONSABILIDAD SOCIAL Y COMUNICACIÓN EN PAÍSES DE AMÉRICA LATINA ESTUDIO APLICADO EN EMPRESAS DE ECUADOR, COLOMBIA Y CHILE

A key management element within companies is the link between their social responsibility and communications processes. However, this link is frequently ignored, much to the detriment of the organization itself and society. The objective of this article is to analyze this relationship both theoretically and empirically through a quantitative instrument applied in 96 large companies from different economic sectors in Ecuador, Colombia and Chile. The analysis was conducted based on the four communications and sustainability contexts proposed by Durán, Mosquera and Vega (2017), which vary according to the existing relationship between the social responsibility and communications practices within each organization. In analyzing the scenarios, which can be of total or dominant convergence, or concentrated or scattered divergence, it is possible to establish that the scenario of divergence is more prevalent among the companies studied. This situation, grounded in theory, allows for the interpretation that both communications and social responsibility practices can either limit or foster a more evolved context, depending on the scenario.