ABSTRACT.
Social Responsibility (SR) has evolved from a theoretical and enterprise point of view, while several initiatives (public and private) have been developed and became a key element in its development.
In this context, the importance of the financial sector in his role as driver of the economy and as a financial intermediary from who depend investments and sometimes the actions of companies, leads us to ask which is the current situation of the SR at this sector and more specifically at the savings banks, which are a special case, because of its legal status, at the Spanish financial system.
The main objective of this research is to analyze the influence of the “Obra Social” of Savings Banks in the integration of SR in its management and how the SR affects the achievement of business results.
The results from the hypotheses gave us empirical evidence about the existence of different groups according to their behavior in terms of SR, at the same time we have checked that the “Obra Social” has always been a fundamental part of the Savings Banks and their SR, however SR is not its only component and entities must take into account other aspects for a complete and correct integration of the same.
The results provide valuable information about the behavior of Spanish savings banks, in a time of deep change because of the global financial crisis, although this situation is an excellent point for future research that can give us an idea about how this restructuring will affect the integration of SR in the resulting entities.