Activities for the production and commercialisation of products and services are increasingly being carried out worldwide. In doing so, companies are also active in countries where there are low legal standards to protect ecological and social interests or where implementation is insufficiently monitored by government institutions. For this reason, companies are given great importance in terms of compliance with standards at all stages of the value chain. In view of the rising expectations of stakeholders (e.g. the Initiative for Responsible Multinationals in Switzerland) responsible management is becoming increasingly important in an international context, also from a business perspective.

It turns out that there is little scientific knowledge based on the implementation of responsible management in Latin America. In addition, the opinion that responsible management does not exist at all prevails among numerous actors in Latin America.

For this reason, this multimedial paper aims to use selected examples to describe the challenges facing companies in Latin America in the fields of human rights/working conditions, the environment and corruption. In addition, short case studies are used to illustrate how companies are actually implementing responsible management activities in the three areas.

To achieve these goals, 128 company representatives and experts were interviewed in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Peru between July and November 2017.