The Evolution of Philanthropy Approaches
What was previously known as charity and generosity has migrated towards sustainability, CSR and strategy issues
The long-standing tradition of philanthropic actions by the Mexican business sector has endowed Mexico with a vast philanthropic ecosystem. According to Cemefi (Mexican Center for Philanthropy), in 2022 donations reached approximately $55 billion pesos.
Therefore, philanthropy should be considered as a long-term competitiveness component, rather than a short-term image creator. Corporate philanthropy can become an important agent of change, contributing to the solution of social problems beyond the scope of the government and the private sector.
To explore philanthropic work at the global level, we conducted a bibliometric analysis (Serafin, M. J., Garcia-Vargas, G. R., García-Chivita, M. P., Caicedo, M. I. & Correra, 2019), allowing us to examine the existing bibliography and explore the characteristics of the documents analyzed in terms of philanthropy research productivity. This analysis makes it possible to detect the most relevant topics that have been studied in depth, as well as the pioneering countries and institutions in this field of research.
The documents were retrieved from the SCOPUS database on June 8, 2024. The search was conducted using the key terms philanthropy AND research that were present in the title, abstract and keywords of the documents. We obtained 2,033 documents, mainly distributed among articles, conference and review papers, book chapters, and editorials. The Bibliometrix library (Aria & Cuccurullo, 2017) was used in the R programming language (R Core Team, 2023) to process and analyze the bibliometric data.
Some of the main findings concern the global geographic distribution of studies on philanthropy, with the United States clearly being the pioneer (considering university and independent centers). We can also observe the existing collaborations between countries in the development of studies on philanthropy. The United States is not only the country that contributes the most, but also the largest producer of research on this subject. This leads us to think that there is a window of opportunity to join forces and conduct more and better research on philanthropy in Mexico and Latin America.
Additionally, we showed the central topics in philanthropy research and its evolution and change over the years. Although there is not much research on this subject, we can see that the research that has advanced and changed, and is dynamic in the topics that have been studied in recent decades.
The most commonly studied philanthropy-related topics include charity and generosity, as agents that enhance philanthropic actions. In addition, philanthropy is linked to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability, and the impact organizations can have on the societies and environments in which they operate.
We can also see the keywords used most by time period, which reinforces two matters: first, that research on philanthropy is growing and has boomed over the past few years; and second, that the topics are dynamic, and the focuses of interest have changed.
The reasons for the aforementioned change cannot be specified without first conducting research on the same. Visualizing the fact that what was previously understood as charity and generosity has migrated to issues of sustainability, CSR and strategy is of utmost importance. We therefore consider this chair to be fundamental, given that understanding why philanthropy has shifted away from generosity towards becoming a strategic action and impact investment is relevant for determining future research avenues.
In conclusion, we believe that we are at a key historical moment where generosity must be a guiding principle. We believe in the power of academia to enhance social impact through research. For this reason, we are joining forces to work on researching philanthropy-related topics, populations, donors, and issues, thereby helping organizations and individuals to donate more and better for a fairer, more equitable, and more sustainable world.
One of the fundamental pillars of the Philanthropy and Impact Investing Chair at EGADE Business School - Tecnológico de Monterrey, launched in May 2024, is to conduct research that will have an impact on and be useful for society and decision-makers.
References
Aria, M., & Cuccurullo, C. (2017). An R-Tool for Comprehensive Science Mapping Analysis. Bibliometrix. Journal of Informetrics (Vol. 11, Number 4, pp. 959-975). Elsevier Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2017.08.007
R Core Team. (2023). R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing [Software].
Serafin, M. J., Garcia-Vargas, G. R., García-Chivita, M. P., Caicedo, M. I. & Correra, J. C. (2019). Cyberbehavior A Bibliometric Analysis. Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine, 17, 17-24.
