Set of Corportate Sustainability Indicators: An Evaluation Proposal for Micro and Small Companies in the Agroindustrial Segment

Abstract

In order to measure the sustainability of the enterprises, the use of indicators that, used in planning and decision making was emphasized, allow the monitoring and evaluation of organizations in relation to sustainability. Bearing in mind that most of the existing business sustainability measurement instruments evaluate large companies, the objective of this study was to identify a set of indicators appropriated to micro and small agroindustrial companies. Methodologically the research was developed in two stages, one exploratory and the other descriptive, in both stages the sources of the qualitative and quantitative study were bibliographical. The set of indicators proposed from the repetition frequency was submitted to the evaluation of agroindustry owners and academics from the areas of management and sustainability in order to evaluate the importance of the indicators suggested in the measurement of sustainability and the aspects related to the ease in obtaining the data needed to produce the respective indicators. From the average of theassigned weights, the information on the degree of importance and difficulty of the indicators was cross-referenced in a specific matrix. As results, it was identified that the proposed set is adequate to the reality of the enterprises and could be used to measure the sustainability of micro and small agroindustries contributing to the sustainability of these organizations.