Corporate Social Responsibility in SMEs

PurposeThe research aims to profoundly investigate the correlation between uncertainty-fear against COVID-19, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and labor practices issues based on ISO 26000.Design/methodology/approachPartial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was adopted for data analysis and hypotheses testing on a sample of 304 managers and employees in the Egyptian small and medium enterprises (SMEs).FindingsPreliminary results indicate that the uncertainty-fear against COVID-19 positively affects CSR practices in SMEs. CSR positively impacts labor practices dimensions. However, CSR has an insignificant effect on the social protection and work condition dimension. Also, CSR has a significant mediating role in the association between uncertainty-fear toward the pandemic and labor practices. But, this relation is insignificant regarding social protection and work condition dimension.Practical implicationsManagers could develop a consistent strategy for applying CSR practices, providing clear information and focusing on their procedures to protect their workforce during COVID-19. Governments should impose policies to guarantee that all employees have the same opportunities and not discriminate directly or indirectly in any labor practice.Originality/valueBased on both the “stakeholder” and “social-cognitive” theories, this study shed light on the optimistic side of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it also brings the concepts of social responsibility, sustainability and green practices back into the light, which helps in solving labor issues.

While lean management practices (LMP) help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to be efficient, sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI) facilitates adopting environmental and social practices. Although prior research looks into the effect of LMP on economic performance of SMEs, less is known about the effect of LMP on sustainability (economic, environmental, and social) performance. Studies on the effect of SOI on sustainability and economic performance are also scant. Additionally, examining the mediating effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices (environmental and social practices) on both LMP and SOI achieving sustainability performance is rare. This research bridges these knowledge gaps by answering how LMP, SOI, CSR practices, sustainability and economic performance are correlated. Through a few hypothesis tests using structural equation modelling, this study reveals the impact of LMP, SOI and CSR (environmental and social) practices on sustainability and economic performance. The study uses data from 119 SMEs within manufacturing industries in the Midlands, UK. The analysis reveals that LMP and SOI facilitate achieving both sustainability and economic performance, and SOI mediates LMP to achieve sustainability performance. Additionally, although CSR practices mediate LMP to achieve sustainability performance, it only marginally mediates SOI to achieve sustainability performance.

While lean management practices (LMP) help small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to be efficient, sustainability‐oriented innovation (SOI) facilitates adopting environmental and social practices. Although prior research looks into the effect of LMP on the economic performance (EP) of SMEs, less is known about the effect of LMP on sustainability (economic, environmental and social) performance. Studies on the effect of SOI on sustainability and economic performance are also scant. Additionally, examining the mediating effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices (environmental and social practices) on both LMP and SOI achieving sustainability performance (SP) is rare. This research bridges these knowledge gaps by answering the question of how LMP, SOI, CSR practices, sustainability and economic performance are correlated. Through hypothesis testing using structural equation modelling, this study reveals the impact of LMP, SOI, CSR (environmental and social) practices on sustainability and economic performance. The study uses data from 119 SMEs within manufacturing industries in the Midlands, UK. The analysis reveals that LMP and SOI facilitate achieving both sustainability and economic performance, and SOI mediates LMP to achieve sustainability performance. Additionally, although CSR practices mediate LMP to achieve sustainability performance, they only borderline mediate SOI to achieve sustainability performance.

Objective: This study explores how family values are reflected in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices of family owned small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It also seeks to identify the dominant theoretical frameworks and conceptual models used in CSR research on these firms. This study addresses a gap in the literature by focusing specifically on SMEs, which have been underrepresented in systematic reviews of CSR in family businesses. Research Design & Methods: A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. A comprehensive database search identified 418 articles that were initially screened based on clearly defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. After a multi-stage review process, 55 articles were selected for analysis. This study employed thematic analysis to categorize CSR motivations, practices, and outcomes in family-owned SMEs. Findings: Findings indicate that CSR in family-owned SMEs is strongly shaped by informal mechanisms, community embeddedness, and intergenerational values. Socioemotional wealth (SEW) and stewardship theories are the most frequently applied frameworks. However, CSR initiatives in these firms are typically reactive and value-driven, rather than strategic. Variations were found across contexts, with firms in developing countries being more influenced by family legacy and community ties. Implications & Recommendations: This study highlights the need for tailored CSR frameworks that consider the informal nature and resource limitations of family-owned SMEs. Policymakers and support institutions should design CSR programs that align with these firms’ values and structures. Future research should explore the longitudinal changes in CSR motivations as family firms evolve across generations. Contribution & Value Added: This study contributes to the CSR and family business literature by focusing on how CSR is practiced and theorized within family-owned SMEs. It differentiates itself from prior reviews by concentrating on smaller enterprises and uncovering unique CSR patterns tied to family dynamics and informal governance structures.

Objectives: This study aims to explain (1) Islamic business ethics and corporate responsibility for sustainable development goals, as well as (2) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices in the BTM Mulia Babat KKS in the context of Islamic business ethics. Theoretical Framework: Islamic business ethics, which includes the values of honesty, fairness, and belonging, are considered essential to achieving business success. CSR is a corporate social responsibility that aims to increase corporate value and shareholder welfare. With a commitment to sustainable economic development, CSR integrates social responsibility in business operations. The framework of this research relates the implementation of Islamic business ethics to CSR practices, as well as how this impacts the company's value and stakeholder well-being. Method: This study uses a qualitative approach with a type of field research. Data was collected through observations, interviews, and documentation related to CSR practices at KKS BTM Mulia Babat. Results and Discussion: The results of the study show that: Islamic business ethics has five basic axioms: unity, balance, free will, virtue, and responsibility. The implementation of CSR at KKS BTM Mulia Babat has been carried out by the principles of Islamic business ethics. This includes responsibility to consumers, employees, investors, and the environment. Research Implications: The findings of this study indicate that the application of Islamic business ethics in CSR can increase corporate value and shareholder welfare and contribute to sustainable economic development. In addition, it can be a model for other companies to integrate Islamic business ethics into their CSR practices. Novelty/Originality: The uniqueness of this research lies in the combination of the concept of Islamic business ethics with CSR practices in the context of the BTM Mulia Babat KKS company. This research provides new insights into how Islamic values can be effectively integrated in modern business operations to achieve better social and environmental well-being.

Background: Although there has been a significant interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in recent years, there is lack of adequate studies regarding the status of CSR practices in Nepal. The existing studies generally suffer from the narrow conceptualization of CSR, focus on selected companies or industry sector only and from the relatively small sample size. Objectives: This paper aims to identify the status of CSR practices in the Nepalese context. Methods: This study uses questionnaire survey method by taking a sample of 168 listed companies of Nepal representing diverse industry sectors. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANNOVA and t-test have been used to analyze the collected data. Results: The overall status of CSR practices in Nepal is above the moderate level. The most common CSR practices in Nepal relate to corporate governance as well as customers whereas the least common CSR practices include environment and community related activities. Likewise, level of CSR practices is significantly higher among large firms compared to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). However, there is no significant difference on the status of CSR practices between banking sector and non-banking sector firms. Conclusions: While the overall status of CSR practices in Nepal is above the moderate level, Nepalese companies are not paying adequate attention on community and environment related issues. The results also indicate that size of the firm tend to affect the level of CSR practices in the Nepalese context though the difference on CSR practices between small and medium sized firms is not statistically significant. Implications: The government and policy makers may consider giving tax exemption or any other clearly spelled out incentives particularly to the environment and community related CSR activities. Likewise, managers and other stakeholders including the government may focus on identifying and overcoming the barriers for CSR practices among SMEs in Nepal.

Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) are regarded as a vital business sector in the South African economy. They elevate employment, reduce poverty, and increase the overall economic growth of any country. It is essential that SMEs should develop and grow. In ensuring their survival and growth, SMEs must be flexible and agile in every growth stage. Thus, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the strategic tools for business survival and growth. CSR is when organisations act responsibly and ethically towards society, the environment and other stakeholders, to maximise positive impact not just for profit. It is expected that the implementation of CSR can enhance the performance of SMEs. Consequently, the study assesses CSR practices applied by SMEs in the eThekwini Metropolitan Area. The study was quantitative in nature. It targeted 120 SME owners in the automotive manufacturing sector of the eThekwini Metropolitan Area. Data collected from 110 SME owners was analysed using version 27 of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The results established that business performance increases when SME organisations support community, particularly when there is employee involvement in such support activities. Hence, the original value of this study is in its approach in uncovering the perceptions and involvement of SMEs operating in the automotive manufacturing sector in the eThekwini Metropolitan Area in KwaZulu-Natal (in South Africa) on their CSR practices.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the influence of the digitalization of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the sustainable competitive performance (SCP) of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in an emerging economy and to examine the moderating effect of digital organizational culture on this relationship.Design/methodology/approachData collection was conducted through a survey completed by 311 owners and top managers operating in service, trading and manufacturing sector SMEs positioned within the twin cities of Pakistan. A convenient purposively sampling technique and snowball method were used for data collection, and structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.FindingsThe results of this study suggest that CSR digitalization has a markedly positive influence on the SCP. Digital organizational culture appears to moderate these relationships.Practical implicationsThis study highlights the importance of considering CSR digitalization and fostering a digital organizational culture for SMEs to achieve SCP. The findings provide valuable insights for strategic decision-makers, including owners, CEOs and senior management of SMEs, to enhance their knowledge concerning how and why a digital organizational culture makes it easier to digitalize CSR activities, with the ultimate objective of ensuring SCP and SME growth. Overall, the findings of this study have practical implications for policymakers and managers in SMEs as they can promote the adoption of digital technologies in CSR initiatives and develop a digital organizational culture within the organization. This would contribute to enhancing the SCP of SMEs. Thus, this research is beneficial for business actors, policymakers and researchers seeking to enhance SMEs’ SCP.Social implicationsThis study provides valuable guidance to the senior management of SMEs regarding successfully adopting and integrating digital technologies into their CSR practices. This integration can lead to increased social and environmental benefits, which positively impact both business and society. Policymakers can use these findings to develop policies and initiatives to encourage CSR digitalization among SMEs. By providing support and incentives for digital transformation, policymakers can help SMEs adopt digital tools to improve their CSR performance, contributing to economic growth and sustainability.Originality/valueThis study pioneers research on the links between CSR digitalization, digital organizational culture and the SCP of SMEs. This study contributes to the literature by defining CSR digitalization as an antecedent to the SCP of SMEs. In addition, this study underlines the significance of CSR digitalization for the achievement of SMEs’ SCP of SMEs with the moderating role of digital organizational culture. Overall, this study enriches the resource base view literature through empirical evidence.

Corporate Social Responsibility in SMEs: A Shift From Philanthropy to Institutional Works?

The main objective of this chapter is to explore how the adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices is associated with firm innovativeness, utilising a rich data survey of 3,500 Greek SMEs. Furthermore, by classifying SMEs into two groups, the high-performing and low-performing in terms of CSR, we explore whether and in which way the application of CSR moderates the relationship between innovation inputs (such as R&D expenditure and R&D collaboration) and innovation output. The findings obtained from the first stage of our analysis suggest that CSR practices drive the innovation process as well as the innovation output of SMEs, supporting thus SDG9. The empirical results obtained from the second stage of analysis indicate that the wide adoption of CSR practices may stand as an alternative way to established and more expensive drivers of innovation output in adverse times when firms lack financial resources especially in crisis-hit economies such as the case of Greece.

This article analyses the perception and application of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in a sample of 499 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the city of Santa Marta (Colombia) following the theory of Stakeholders. Specifically, the interdependence technique of exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the most influential Stakeholders in the execution of CSR practices. It was found that Stakeholders related to the value chain, the environment and corporate management favour social responsibility actions in local MSMEs. In contrast, community and government have less influence on the development of social responsibility practices in MSMEs. Additionally, it was found that the size of the business acts as an important moderator of the development of the CSR. Given that there is a distinctive influence of Stakeholders in the development of responsible practices in the MSMEs of Santa Marta, it is suggested that comprehensive training programs on social responsibility be promoted in smaller companies.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is very important topic in the present competitive business environment. The aim of this exploratory study is to capture the current status of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) awareness, commitment and practices level of tea manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka and assessing the socioeconomic impact of company CSR on employees and smallholders. The study provides an overview of company CSR practices as well as of employee and smallholder experiences and perceptions of CSR practices of tea manufacturing companies. The research study is based on Kandy district and three perspectives factory owners, employees and smallholders were used in exploring the CSR level and its socioeconomic impact. To achieve the research objectives tea manufacturing company’s CSR practices are studied in three domains: CSR to employees, smallholders and environment. The researcher used mixed method comprising both quantitative and qualitative elements. There is a positive relationship between tea manufacturing company CSR level and the socioeconomic condition of employee and the smallholders. When it consider about the overall situation, current CSR practices of tea manufacturing companies have not made a positive impact on socioeconomic development of employees and smallholders. Tea manufacturing companies should consider CSR strategies that are in the interest of all stakeholders and relevant to the business.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/kjm.v2i1.6546 Kelaniya Journal of Management Vol.2(1) 2013:113-142

This article provides a review of the practice of corporate social
\nresponsibility (CSR) in Vietnamese enterprises, especially in Vietnamese
\nsmall and medium enterprises (SMES). To do so, this article
\nfirst reviewed the conceptual framework of CSR and CSR in
\ndeveloping countries. In addition to enhancing the competitiveness
\nof Vietnamese enterprises in general, Vietnamese SMEs in
\nparticular, this study highlights the lessons learned from CSR empirical
\nstudies in developing countries. Furthermore, based on the
\nanalysis of Vietnamese enterprises and CSR practices in Vietnam,
\nthe article collates the recommendations given by researchers to
\nstrengthen and improve the implementation of CSR in Vietnam
\nas well as provide some suggestions to help Vietnamese enterprises
\nget success in applying CSR in their sustainable business
\nobjectives. This article concludes the implementation of CSR in
\nVietnam is still limited, and there are many obstacles and limitations
\nin applying CSR not only from the business itself but also
\nfrom the operating environment. Therefore, to implement and integrate
\nCSR into Vietnamese enterprises’ business strategies, CSR
\nawareness should be improved as well as the legal framework for
\nimplementing CSR.

Goal: this в paper investigates the diversity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in the Russian context. The purpose of this paper is to study how a heterogeneous context, commonly found in rising economies, shapes the emerging CSR practices of business organizations operating in Russia. Methodology: an institutional perspective that draws on the contextual multilevel approach guides our study. In our theoretical framing we assume that organizational fields play a key role in shaping CSR practices. This is applied to empirical investigation of organizational CSR practices. To inform our analysis we used desk research and an empirical dataset that consists of interviews with local business owners and managers representing a wide range of business organizations operating in Russia. Findings: based on an exploratory qualitative inquiry, we distinguish between four types of organizational CSR practices co-existing in Russia: global, crossvergent, authentic and irresponsible. Our findings demonstrate that business organizations populating one organizational field share homogeneous characteristics of CSR practices. Originality and contribution: the distinctions among CSR practices of business organizations belonging to different organizational fields are explained by the markets where they operate, core stakeholders, response mechanisms to prevailing institutional pressures and the dominant legacy of CSR.

In the present times Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plays a major role in banking and other sectors in achieving their objectives. In India the companies are adopting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices at a very fast rate due to their ethical standards as well as due to the requirements of the law. The companies are aware about their critical role in the society. The banking sector is no exception in this context. They are also adopting Corporate Social Responsibility practices. The public as well as private sector banks have already initiated many social and economic welfare programs which includes community welfare, education, environment protection, poverty eradication, health and medical care, rural area development etc. In the present study the Corporate Social Responsibility practices of banks has been studied. For this purpose, one bank from public and one from private sector has been selected. The public sector bank chosen for the study is State Bank of India and HDFC Bank has been selected from the private sector banks. The study analyzed and compared the total expenditure incurred by the banks on various Corporate Social Responsibility activities. The study found that both the banks have increased their spending on corporate social responsibility activities.