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What are the factors effecting the managerial perceptions of corporate
social responsibility in small and medium enterprises: A Systematic
Review
Gavin Daly- B3048956/ s2642190
Dual Masters Award in Advanced International Business Management – MA/MSc
Newcastle University – Supervisor:Dr. Tracy Scurry
University of Groningen- Supervisor: Dr Linda Toolsema-Veldman
Research carried out at Newcastle University
2 Abstract:
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are becoming a vital part of the operations of small and medium enterprises. However, the majority of research concentrates on larger firms meaning the relevance these findings for smaller firms is often questionable. This thesis concentrates on
understanding what motivates managers of SMEs to engage with CSR policies. This thesis adopts the methodology of a systematic review in order to (a) Collate and review the relevant literature around the area of SME managers motivations (b) Synthesise the work and present findings on some of the motivating factors in order to identify common threads from research which uses widely different contexts and methodologies and (c) Present a number of suggestions for future research based around areas that were under researched among the articles selected for this study. These suggestions will attempt to examine a lot of the issues in the field of CSR research such as the lack of generalizability of studies. Six main areas impacting on the motivations of SME managers to engage in CSR are discussed in this work. The research results in six propositions that help to combine the varied perspectives in order to help aid understandings of how SMEs operate.
Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank my dissertation supervisors Dr. Scurry and Dr.Toolsema-Veldman for their invaluable support and feedback throughout the process of producing this research. I would also like to thank my family for their support throughout my studies as well as my classmates on the AIBM course for their advice over the last few months.
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Contents
Abstract ………2
1. Introduction……….4
2. Methodology………...8
2.1 Introduction to systematic review……….8
2.2 Search Strategy………...8
2.3 Summary of articles found………9
3. Definitional issues ………..11
3.1 Definitions of corporate social responsibility………….11
3.2 Definitions of small and medium enterprise…………..12
4. Findings ……….13
4.1 Methodological overview of existing research………..13
4.2 Values………...17
4.3 Strategic/Economic factors ………....22
4.4 Stakeholders……….26
4.5 Demographics………..31
4.6 Internal structural factors………..33
4.7 Government regulations……….36
5. Results………39
6. Conclusions………42
Appendices ……….45
4 1. Introduction:
Corporate Social Responsibilty is seen as a key element driving the performance of firms. A lot of research into CSR has been conducted , with findings such as the suggestion that firms engaging in CSR benefit in ways beyond purely bottom line outcomes such as increasing profits or share prices (Galbreath, 2010).Some of the other benefits that have been ascribed to CSR include the idea that itreduces employee turnover, increases customer satisfaction andthat it provides visible signals from which stakeholders infer various positive characteristics of firms(Galbreath, 2010). The majority of literature has concentrated on larger firms but in recent years the prevalence of small and medium enterprises has increased exponentially. An ACCA report indicates that smaller firms account for just under 50% of private sector value added and 77% of private sector employment in their top 20 markets (ACCA, 2010). Of course the contribution of small business varies greatly among different countries with the richer more developed countries seeing a higher share, however the
importance of SME operations to developing countries is also increasing with a 42% share of private sector value added being reported (ACCA, 2010).
Previous research into Corporate Social Responsibility has concentrated on larger firms and their reasoning for adopting policies as well as the impact of these actions on performance. The literature contends that motivations for larger firms include improving reputation, improving overall profitability, improving supplier relations and improving the strength of a company‟s brands (Battacharya&Korschun, 2011). The dynamic nature of SMEs makes it an important area of research. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) report from
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CSR as a research field has been blighted by a lack of an agreed definition of the term which has led to the slow progress and wrong interpretation of results (Tanjea, et al., 2011). This thesis defines CSR as “the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large” (WBC, 2000). Until now CSR research has been disparate with studies not carrying on from the results of previous ones, only recently has there been a move towards developing a theoretical framework that combines quantitative and qualitative research (Tanjea, et al., 2011). This thesis, will attempt to develop theory in the area of SME managers motivations for engaging in CSR through combining studies from a variety of backgrounds which use various methods of conducting research.
This thesis will attempt to answer the research question “What are the factors effecting the managerial perceptions of corporate social responsibility in small and medium enterprises? “.CSR is clearly important to improving business performance for a number of reasons as it aids in reducing costs, strengthening legitimacy and reputation, building competitive advantage and creating win-win situations through synergistic value creation(Carroll & Shabana, 2010). A better understanding of what motivates managers to engage in CSR policies will help to explain how notions of CSR are enacted and applied in smaller firms as well as helping to create an understanding of how the thought process of managers differ across different cultures. This could help improve the abilities of policy makers to craft regulations that are more tailored to the realities faced by SME managers. The extent to which policy makers influence Motivations for CSR is one of the key categories identified in this research.It is vital that they improve the relevance of regulations as this could lead to a greater engagement with CSR policies beyond attempts just to comply with legal
requirements. This thesis seeks to contribute to the literature on CSR by collating information on the motivations of SME managers from a variety of sources. The research culminates with propositions being drawn about the main motivations for engaging in CSR. These
propositions will attempt to bring to light commonalities in the research which will help in developing a fuller base of knowledge on the subject.
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value. The broad range of CSR activities that are looked at in the literature and the wide array of contexts and different motivations being researched suggests that there is a high level of fragmentation within this area of study. This creates an issue related to the accumulation and building of a base of knowledge in this area (Rousseau et al. 2008). A systematic review is a good way to ascertain whether the different findings actually result from real differences within the field or whether they are merely reflective of different methods and contexts (Rousseau et al. 2008).
This thesis includes a discussion of research on SME‟s engagement with CSR policies which uses a wide variety of different national contexts as well as many different forms of
methodology. This will aid in shaping a greater understanding of which motivations occur most often. This information would prove useful for policy makers who could attempt to craft regulations that are more likely to be enacted based on them being closely related to the concerns of managers. This is an important area of research as in recent years; governments have adopted a greater role in acting as drivers of CSR through setting policies which attempt to increase engagement with CSR (Fox et al., 2002). This systematic review draws on 134 articles from a variety of journals are used in order to answer the research question in greater detail
Thisthesis will also concentrate on area of motivation as this is important to understand as in smaller owner-managed firms control usually remains in the hands of the owners which enables the decision making process of the business to reflect their personal values
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This thesis will be structured as follows:The next section will be a discussion about the methodology of the study. Section 3 includes a discussion ofdefinitional issues involved with the key terms in the research question. This is followed by section 4 which begins the
analysis. This section will provide a data based summary of the articles looking at elements such as whether it was conducted using quantitative or qualitative methods and then begins a discussion of the common themes that have emerged in the research. Some of the main determinants that have emerged from the papers include the values of the manager, the impact of cultural or demographic factors, the impact of government initiatives and regulations, the nature of stakeholder relationships and strategic considerations. The paper concludes in section 5 and 6whichprovides the results of the study in the form of 6
8 2. Methodology:
2.1: Introduction to systematic review.
The Research question “What are the factors effecting the managerial perceptions of corporate social responsibility in small and medium enterprises“,will be looked at with a systematic review. This refers to a specific methodology that locates existing studies, selects and evaluates contributions, analyses and synthesises data and reports the evidence in such a way that allows reasonably clear conclusions to be reached about what we know on the subject(Denyer & Tranfield, 2009). However, this methodology does not assume that the availability of this evidence will lead directly to actionable results. Instead the synthesis of evidence is a critical first step in making accumulated knowledge available for interpretation and use(Rousseau, et al., 2008). This helps the scholarly development of a field as it aids in the teaching and practice of evidence based management, reducing the common problems researchers face such as distinguishing complexity from randomness (Rousseau, et al., 2008). Generally, a systematic review will begin with the formulation of a research question and then this will be followed by the locating studies, the evaluation and selection of studies based on strict criteria and then finally the analysis and synthesis of the work (
Denyer&Tranfield, 2009). 2.2: Search Strategy.
A comprehensive search was undertaken in order to find a wide variety of sources which will aim to create a full understanding of the factors impacting on the motivations of SME
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The initial hits on the EBSCO business complete database were over 50‟000. After the addition of the aforementioned word association operators there was an initial list of 613 articles that could be linked to the topic on a general basis.The next stage was to re-read the abstracts and check them against more detailed exclusion criteria that limit the relevance of the paper to this research. The criteria were based on Lincoln and Guba‟s criteria on
evaluating the trustworthiness of findings which include considerations of credibility,
transferability, dependability and confirmability(Lincoln & Guba, 1985). After applying the systematic criteria the number of articles was reduced to 245 after 368 papers were deemed to be too far removed from the topic at hand to provide enough useful information for inclusion. This initial cut down was based on the preliminary exclusion criterion of the outcome
measurements being too far removed from the information sought in this study and the stated aims of the papers being too general or related to other topics such as motivations in larger international firms. Certain commissioned reports and conference proceedings were also eliminated from the list as it was felt that they may not rigorous enough in terms of their methodology and therefore would risk including explanations for phenomenon that were lacking in academic rigour. At this point the papers were looked at in further detail and 111 more papers were eliminated for various reasons related to the impact factor of the journals or how the papers concentrating too heavily on factors not related to managerial motivations (Appendix C-1).
2.3: Summary of articles found.
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3. Definitional issues
3.1: Definitions of Corporate social responsibility.
Corporate social responsibility is a difficult concept to define as it can take on many shapes and forms . As it is a process that necessitates the consideration of a variety of stakeholders it is difficult to apply a one-size fits all definition . Cultural differences are one of the most prevalent issues as different countries have different priorities that mould the accepted ways that businesses can act in, the conduct of business emerges and evolves based on differences in religious, philosophical, societal, economical and institutional concepts and notions. The ways that countries goals line up with their CSR policies and how this impacts on the development of SME motivation forms a crucial element of the findings section.This thesis adopts the The World Business Council for Sustainable Development‟s definition of CSR states that “Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at
large”(WBC, 2000. Pg.10). This definition takes into account the stakeholder
dimensionwhich is a recurring theme in the literature being studied. The ways in which important stakeholders differ from larger firms and how this impacts on how moivations are generated forms a crucial part of the findings section. This research includes a number of other similar terms for CSR which have been deemed relevant for understanding the issues being studied. For example, Studies reffered to CSR-related concepts as „Ethics-focused dynamic capabilities‟ (Arend,2013) „Community Social Responsibility “ (Besser & Miller, 2001) and „corporate social perfomance‟ (Thompson & Hood,1993) . Despite this occasional confusion in terminology, research has shown that small business owner managers are clearly able to differentiate among the different concepts related to social responsibility and business ethics and are able to recognise the interrelationships and interdependencies of the different concepts (Fassin et. al, 2010).
3.2 Definitions of small and medium enterprises
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5). This definition holds for the majority of the firms surveyed within the articles, although it must be noted that a number of papers use a definition of less than 500 employees as
13 4. Findings
4.1 Methodological overview of existing research Types of methodology used:
The predominant methodology used among the articles in this systematic review was a form of quantitative review using surveys or questionnaires to obtain data with 44 of the 134 studies used in this thesis undertaking this method (33.3% of articles). Methods involving the use of the qualitative case studies of companies also occurred very regularly in the study with 30 studies conforming to these methods (21%). Other methods that occurred regularly
included the interpretation of different contexts using qualitative methods(23 studies), Literature reviews (14 studies) and Quantitative studies based on individual interviews (7 studies). (Appendix C-3) Furthermore, three papers were classified as miscellaneous as they were studies that concentrated on definitions or were editorials for special issues of journals. The wide variety of different methods used shows that this subject field is highly fractured. It is important to bring together a wide variety of research types in order to compensate for potential issues such as researcher value judgments and uncontrolled validity threats (Denyer&Tranfield, 2003).Taking articles with a wide variety of research methods aids the investigation of contextual factors influencing the study‟s design and its findings, the more heterogeneous the distribution articles, the greater the validity of the findings from the set (Denyer&Tranfield, 2003).
Introduction to the categories explaining motivation:
The next step was to place each of the papers into categories which reflect the dominant method that the authors felt contribute to shaping the CSR policies of SME managers. (Appendix C-3). This was done by coding the main conclusions of each article and placing the articles into categories based on the dominant reasoning behind SME manager
motivations found in the research. There are six main categories that have been identified to explain how motivations develop: Stakeholder relationships, personal values, demographic factors, strategic considerations, internal attributes of small firms and the impact of
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these values are shaped. 37 articles or 26% of the full list of articles being researched fell into this category (Appendix C-7). This section also includes a lot of research into the impact of different cultural contexts as this is a frequently occurring underlying factor behind the initial development of relevant values and therefore will form a crucial part of the research. The impact of different stakeholder relationships on how SME managers perceived certain CSR policies to be important was the next largest category found in the research with 33 different articles looking at these considerations (Appendix C-6). The discussion of the findings in this area includes a look at the impact of a number of stakeholder relationships including
customers, the local community and the influence of different firms along the supply chain and in local clusters of competition. The size of the firms being studied is shown to make them more amenable to the suggestions of outside actors. Another key category being looked at takes into consideration the economic motivations behind adopting CSR policies with 26 papers falling into this category (Appendix C-5). This section includes information on CSR being a key consideration in the development of firm – level strategies and how policies can afford a number of benefits to them. With markets across the globe becoming increasingly competitive it is increasingly important for firms to act strategically across all parts of their operations, with the benefits of CSR becoming well accepted the research will show that attempts to think economically about CSR is becoming more prevalent.
C-15
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Figure 1: Model explaining the factors influencing motivations of SME managers Motivations of SME managers Values Stakeholder relaionships Internal structural influences Government regulations Strategic considerations Demographics Age Gender Status as minority
Increasing need for competitiveness Reputation building Companywide CSR synergies Supply chain pressures. Importance of institutional environment Weaknesses of current policies
Prescriptions for linking policies to smaller firms
More specific operational contexts Greater susceptibility to outside pressure Informal structure Informal managerial control systems Community embededness Impact of business clusters Influence of suppliers Importance of adaptable relationships Impact of social norms
17 4.2 Values:
Linking values to cultural contexts:
The most frequently occurring reason found in the literature behind the formation of SME manager‟s motivations for engaging in CSR was their underlying ethical values. The literature is replete with examples of how values develop, with the impact of the cultural characteristics of the contexts that managers operate in being a particularly strong factor. A case study conducted with 5 Italian SMEs found that the choice of a certain practice seems to depend on the vision of the owner/entrepreneur and the socio–economic context wherein the company operates (Ciliberti et al, 2008). This idea is supported across a wide variety of contexts. For example, Hsu and Cheng (2012)survey of managersin Taiwanese SMEs found that the personal values, ethics,or support of the top manager are the key drivers of CSR practices with the vast majority of decisions being made by the owner or the top manager alone . Del Baldo (2012) shows that in the Italian context, one of the two key characteristics of socially responsible governance is that it‟s„informal, emergent and value-based‟. The mixed case study and questionnaire based approaches of this study give it particular relevance. Firms that actively engaged in CSR policies were found to have a rich fabric of values amongst all of those who worked there and that these values were often innately linked to specific moral principles.
Another strong example of how a particular culture impact‟s on the formation of values occurs in Nejati and Amran‟s look at the Malaysian context. Many of the companies surveyed did not find that they benefited greatly from their enactment of CSR policies but engaged with them anyway due to a belief that it was important for them to do good for society because they were consuming a lot of resources provided to them by society (Nejati&Amran, 2009). Of course with the wide variety of different cultural contexts in existence it is difficult to provide a one size fits all answer as to how values develop however it is possible to understand certain elements that seem somewhat consistent among different contexts.
Manager’s perceptions of their values:
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that the average score in an ethical scenarios test for managers showed better ethical belief and knowledge when compared to key personnel in their organizations. Managers were more disapproving of ethically questionable behaviour in all responses, placing their answers on the more ethical side of the scale. The idea of a manager‟s self-perception is vital to understand as it will underline how they make sense of ethical dilemmas and how their responses are likely to be tailored towards building an external reputation similar to how they view their own character. Other works detail the extent to which different ethical scenarios are ranked in terms of their importance.Product cheating scenarioswere seen as the most unethical then lying and misleading customers. Violation of labour law was further down the list with some cultural basis being found for all of the results (Humphreys et al, 1993).Many small business people believe that ethical standards in society as a whole have dropped over the last 20 years, however they are always sure to state that they perceive themselves as being more ethical then their peers (Vitell et al, 2000). Although the accuracy of taking a managers own claims into account can be questioned it is certainly clear from these articles that there are certain commonalities among different context. Furthermore, the prevailing belief that ethical actions in relation to consumers and employees lead to the highest levels of conflict is clear from a number of different articles.
Religious impacts on value formation:
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religious group, expressed on overall higher concern on ethical issues, particularly in areas of discrimination then did members of the groups classified to be business based or community based.
Impact of personality types on value formation:
The personality type of the owner-manager has been looked at as a factor in how strongly their values drove the policy of the firm. Early research by Wilson found that 88% of small business owners conformed to a „type P‟ personality which saw them as being essentially profit-oriented, doing the "socially responsible thing" either not at all or in order to make his business a success in the long run. Only 12% of business owners were „type V‟ or voluntarily driven (Wilson, 1980). More recent studies have gone into detail on what personality types are more likely to be driven to adopt ethical policies. Managers who showed higher levels of idealism, spirituality and religiosity were more likely to adopt ethical policies whereas high levels of relativism, materialism and Machiavellianism were predictors of unethical
behaviour (Tandon et al., 2005). Again, this is vital to understand as a lot of smaller firms still lack formalised rules of conduct, it could be posited that the values based orientation of the primary decision maker should have a significant role in determining what CSR practices are adopted by the firm. On the other hand, Longenecker et al found that the ethical values and inclinations of the small business owner did not seem to be fundamentally different from their larger counterparts and that personal and situational factors may not always yield general differences in ethical values and behaviour (Longenecker et al., 2006). This type of research could be useful in predicting the behaviours of managers who exhibit certain traits in their personalities but we do again see issues arising as studies looking at different contexts find different results.
Differences between family and non-family firms:
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propensity towards social responsibility initiatives is just one of the outcomes of this type of operation (Fitzgerald et al., 2010). It is clear that the close link between family firms and the local community is potentially a mutually beneficial relationship that helps to create self-reinforcing patterns of interaction which may help with the creation of values among firms in particular contexts. Family –centred non-economic goals and the idea of socio-emotional wealth were the key sets of institutional logics driving the operations of family firms, a very different set of stakeholder salience conditions from non-family operated firms (Mitchell et al., 2011). As management legitimacy was granted based on hereditary ownership rather than being bestowed socially , it was found that family firms were more likely to strongly push their own value set in interactions with stakeholders even when it may not have led to the most efficient course of action ( Mitchell et al, 2011). Again, this could be due to family firms having more firmly set values in their business models, their greater embededness in local communities could give them a stronger position to bargain from in these situations.
How the manager’s values impact the operations of the SME:
The manager‟s values play a crucial role in understanding the operations of a wide variety of areas within the firm. Ethical values can be seen to impact on corporate policies, management behaviour, engagement in change management and the social inclusion or exclusion of
certain parties (Gellert& Van de Graaf, 2012). This can be linked to the specific case example of the Stromberg company in Norway to show that the character and values of the
owner/manager and their leadership have a decisive role to play in how CSR is interpreted and acted upon (Von Weltzein- Hoivik&Mele, 2009). This particular company was born with a strong social concern and a wide scope, which included employing people in marginalized situations, and positive actions in terms of working conditions and employee participation, environmental protection, and actions of solidarity (Von Weltzein- Hoivik&Mele, 2009). Of course a single company context has limited value in terms of generalizability, however we can see how the beliefs and characteristics of the CEO are spread through the organisation.
The driving force of values of top managers is of even greater importance to smaller firms as they often lack a formalised mission, so managers can use CSR to help develop a longer-term view which is based on sustainability or shared values with stakeholders
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when channelled into particular CSR policies, employees can help to develop these policies to bring alive the business vision of the owner (Perrini&Minoja , 2009). Entrepreneurs decisions on what to do and how to go about it are strongly influenced by their ethical and socially responsible values and their policies usually go hand in hand with strategic planning as they are not mutually exclusive ideas (Ahmad et al., 2012). The interconnected nature of inter-firm relationships in SMEs helps to quickly spread these values meaning that there is an inexorable link with company policy. (Ahmad et al., 2012) .The idea of values having
importance clearly links to the discussion on the internal structural factors which are introduced later on in this research.
22 4.3 Strategic/ Economic
Rationale for economic perspectives:
The idea that firms think aboutthe use CSRpolicies strategically in terms of how it can achieve economic benefits was a recurringtheme within the literature,used to explain the engagement of SMEs with particular policies. As responsible business practices are
increasingly being seen as the normal way of conducting business, some authors believe that SMEs are behaving in socially responsible ways as it is seen to be a good way to do business (Perrini, 2008).It must be noted as well, that many owner/managerssee social responsibility as a moral duty and will undertake CSR activities even if this means a hit to their profit levels (Duh et al., 2010).However, a lot of research points to a belief thatmanagers will only go beyond compliance levels of CSR if they can see a business case for doing so (Jenkins, 2004). As the owner/manager of the SME is often the only individual responsible for making vital decisions they often engage in a sense making process leading to aview of CSR
decisions as being a choice between competing forces with owner–managers feeling that they were forced to make a choice between being economic or ethical (Lahdesmaki, 2012).The owner manager cannot simply treat ethics as an abstract concept or attempt to pass it on to other decision makers as they are closer to the market and the immediate impact of their decisions can be seen. The extent that choices between competing demands fall to one side or the other is heavily context based and brings ina lot of interrelated factors with many of the other categories in this research such as demographics and personal value relevant to the process of „sense-making‟ referred to by Lahdesmaki.
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The increasing prevalence of these considerations are of little surprise as smaller firms need to be efficient to maintain their competitive positions in competitive markets that characterise many modern industries. The majority of small and medium-sized companies surveyed by Longo, welcome CSR not just for reasons related to their ethical values but also because they maintain that this contributes to the growth of the company‟s own value, by means of an improvement in company image, ensuring the fidelity of customers and an improvement in relationships with employees and with the local community (Longo et al., 2005). Although contradictory results have come from attempts to directly link CSR to financial success it is clear that companies increasingly believe that there are economic arguments for enacting policies.It is important to note that the papers in this area come from variety of national contexts and employ a number of different methodological approaches which indicates a certain level of relevance for these findings.
The types of strategies that SMEs engage in:
The idea of attempting to achieve strategic advantage through CSR is shown to have
implications for the type of strategies that SME managers will engage in. One way that SMEs have acted is toimprove their formal communications in an effort to inform relevant
stakeholders about their attempts to engage in socially responsible initiatives. This needs to be done in a manner which will avoid the perception of being self-promotional by critical stakeholders (Nielson &Thomson, 2009). It is also important to strengthen the organisation of CSR internally in order to align external and internal communications; this can help create synergies between direct communications of the company and the way that employees act as representatives of it (Nielson &Thomson, 2009). This links to the idea of how values are created, by strongly linking the underlying values of the firm with how it presents itself, an SME can gain synergies in areas like reputation management and in managing its stakeholder relationships.SMEs are also increasingly likely to proactively incorporate CSR into strategic issues across the business as it is seen to aid strategic proactivity and contribute directly to the firm‟s financial performance ( Torugsa et al., 2007) .Attempts to achieve strategic integration are spread over a wide variety of different areas such as consumer response to product
24 How CSR is linked to strategic perspectives:
While SMEs becoming increasingly pragmatic may be seen as a troublesome sign, it can still lead to improvements in ethical standards that are in the interests of all concerned. Fassin et al (2010) found that ideas of shareholder value are increasingly linked to CSR in the minds of managers and are less likely to be viewed as an „either/or‟ scenario. This may indicate that small-business owner- managers adopt a pragmatic approach, and recognise that profit is an important prerequisite to even engage in social responsibility in the first place. Smaller firms may place less emphasis on meeting the direct needs of shareholders and more on building their reputations. There is little agreement on the asset values of intangible benefits such as this and in a society where values can change quickly;SMEs need to be proactive in their ability to ensure rapid policy updates in response thesechanges (Sarbutts, 2003). In this regard it can be posited that explicit strategies for SMEs could be counter-productive in certain contexts as their operations are more informal and idiosyncratic. The intuition of a manager may be more crucial in achieving stronger performance outcomes in this area. Perhaps it would be a more successful course of action to attempt to develop more general capabilities that would allow the facilitation of the collective integration of values, the creation of strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders and support the exploitation of new business opportunities (Torugsa et al., 2013). While fundamental strategic drivers are important reasons behind the increasing adoption of CSR policies an important future avenue of research may be to look at what capabilities are most important in allowing a more fluid and proactive expression of CSR policies.
Spread of strategic orientations to CSR:
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result they are no longer asking why they must engage with CSR but rather how they can engage with CSR (Rahim &Wittusak, 2013).The benefits of CSR in improving
competitiveness and stakeholder relationships are becoming more universally accepted as compelling reasons behind adopting polices.
Particular relevance of these ideas to smaller firms:
The idea that small firms lack the resources need to engage in CSR simply for reasons based on their ethical values also appear in the literature. As a result of their smaller size and revenue generating abilities smaller firms are forced to adopt CSR policies only on a
pragmatic basis for economic based reasons. Arend (2013) finds thatbuilding ethics-focused dynamic capabilitiesare a „luxury‟ to most SMEs as the costs of increasing „social goods‟ often appear to be larger than the benefits appropriable, at least in the short-term. Any changes made to ethics policies tend to be an attempt to improve strategic performance even if it results in the firm behaving in ways that may be considered as less ethical (Arend , 2013).
The complexities of managing CSR policies can also create similar difficulties. SME suppliers who lack financial and human resources and struggle to balance the day-to-day commercial and ethical demands of their buyers are likely to have a more problematic CSR adoption than for a large firm with dedicated staff and financial resources for the task (Perry & Towers, 2009).Vintila and Moscalu (2009) offer a possible prescription to help SMEs to see CSR as being worth the resource expenditure. The best way to stimulate SMEs to engage in CSR policies is to educate them with regards to the tangible and intangible benefits of CSR , Governmental organisations and NGOs can have a hand in showing firms that CSR can actually help with reducing costs and increasing efficiency proper education policies can help alleviate economic concerns. The provision of timely, relevant knowledge is central to any attempt to make SMEs more environmentally friendly as values alone are not enough to force managers into action as they often lack the skill to translate values into reality (Schaper, 2002).The results of researching this category introduce the second proposition of the
26 4.4 Stakeholders:
Early evidence of the importance of stakeholder relationships:
The impact of a wide variety of stakeholders on building the motivations of SME managers to engage with CSR is one of the most common recurring themes in the research. The idea of good stakeholder relationships having an impact on the actions of SMEs links strongly to the idea of SMEs having an economic basis to their decisions. The idea of stakeholder
motivations being a key in developing SMEs motivations is one of the earliest posited explanations for motivations put forth in the literature. In 1982, Brown and King undertook an empirical study of small firms in Oregon and found that they ranked peer groups as their most important source of motivation, ahead of moral principles, upholding the law and avoiding punishments (Brown & King, 1982).This is important for small firms in particular, as they are impacted more by competitors and their actions in the ethical arena can be more clearly seen by consumers in the local community. It was around this period that small business owners were said to have become more concerned with being actively involved in CSR (Brown & King, 1982). Small businesseswere posited to be in touch with the
expectations of society, for the most part, and, in fact, tended to be more critical of their performance than the general public (Chrisman & Fry, 1982). Studies showed that superior performing firms were to in closer touch with individual perceptions and showed a greater concern for customer- related responsibilities and goals than low performers (Chrisman & Archer, 1984).It must be noted however that at this point there was little direct empirical evidence to support these assertions, only indirect explanations for trends that could be seen in the local environment.
Particular relevance to smaller firms:
The nature of smaller firms has led to a general acceptance that they require good relations with the wider community in order to run a sustainable business. There is a wide range of research which supports the community embededness of SMEs. The size of SMEs represents only one of the key structural components affecting thisembededness, others include their legal form, sector, and orientation towards profit, national context, historical development and institutional structures (Spence, 1999).Existing institutional ethics structures can be looked at as inappropriate to dealing with small firms due to their lack of bureaucracy and formal management styles, it can be seen across a number of papers that personal
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pressures. SMEs have more opportunities to exploit their local engagement to gain strategic advantages, to do this they require large stocks of social capital which results from improving the quality of their relationships through gaining a good reputation and building trust (Perrini, 2006). Small firms are clearly conscious of the importance of taking seriously both the
complaints and expectations of a wide range of stakeholders, there are a variety of
explanations forthis, including gaining visibility with the public and the media, achieving economies of scale, and becoming more competitive on the output market for small enterprises (Perrini et al, 2007).The types of strategic considerations being looked at by SMEs underline a lot of their interactions with different stakeholders, of course the relative importance of different stakeholders will vary for a lot of other reasons such as the cultural context the firm is operating in.
As smaller firms often operate in very specific contexts it is vital for them to understand and define who the stakeholders of highest relevance are to their business. Pinpointed
relationships are crucial in building up efficient communications and fruitful interactions (Lee et al, 2012). There are a number of factors influencing how stakeholder preferences are ranked such as the national context and the type of industry the firm operates in. For example, Jamali et al (2009) found that in the Lebanese context, customers, employees and
shareholders were usually ranked as the most important stakeholders. Other authors have found that consumers, internal managers,employees and NGOs strongly enforce SMESs to undertake CSR activities in emerging markets (Park&Ghauri, 2014). Once again contextual issues are clear from this section. SME managers must observe exactly how relationships in their environment operate in order to meet demands and avoid damaging conflicts. The execution of CSR practices to the overall satisfaction of important stakeholders can help SMEs achieve success in a wide variety of different market types so it is vital to understand how they can build these relationships in an efficient way.
How strong stakeholder relationships are built:
There are a number of methods referred to in the literature that could aid SMEs in building strong, pinpointed stakeholder relationships. Businesses are found to be increasingly
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of products (Morsing&Perrini, 2009). The specific strategies chosen may be linked to the values of the wider community. Besser and Miller (2001) placed firms into four categories: civic leaders, alienated business operators and followers living in high and low collective action communities.Membership of a particular category was posited to increase the likelihood of specific behaviours. Civic leaders for example, were more likely to offer quality, provide wider choices and seek advice from consultants (Besser& Miller, 2001). Knowing the benefits of stakeholder engagement and understanding how the dominant stakeholders in a given context can pressure SMEs towards CSR could allow researchers to understand how firms will network in particular contexts and how specific forms of formal engagement and volunteerism will develop.
Obtaining an understanding of the specific relational attitudesexisting in SMEs and looking at how these may impact on the firm‟s dealings with their stakeholders is important. Ma
performed a wide-ranging study of SME attributes in a variety of contexts finding that SMEs have indeed nurtured peculiar CSR orientations, revolving around strong inspiration, intimate and personalized stakeholder relationships, and moderate innovation allowed through greater flexibility (Ma, 2012).SMEs were seen to have a mixture of personal and religious
valuesadded to by principles ofdiscretion and legitimacy and reflected by an orientation to CSR that was very altruistic in nature and that was characterized as a „„duty of care‟‟ to the local community(Ma,2012). A number of other articles support the idea that firms took their obligation to support the local community very seriously; Madden et al. (2006) found that there was a genuine enthusiasm for the notion of corporate social responsibility which was viewed as more than a duty. It is important to stress that this was not begrudged, but rather an activity that was willingly accepted. Of course a lot of the work here can be strongly linked with the next category, personal values as the attitudes brought into stakeholder relationships are often those of the one main decision maker. This can reflect their own personal ethical values. This can be seen as family firms, in particular were found to have a long-term orientation towards their stakeholder relationships which was reflected in them exhibiting extra care towards concerned groups in comparison to non –family owned firms (Giovanna et al., 2012). This is likely due to family owned firms having long-term associations with particular areas, as they are less footloose it stands that it is even more important for them to maintain long-term relationships.
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Another idea that occurs regularly in the literature is that local business clusters can influence each other‟s CSR policies through a „peer pressure‟ effect. Courrent and Gundolf (2010) find that clusters have numerous benefits for CSR such asenabling the problems inherent in individual adaptation to be overcome, Motivating through peer pressure, acting as an
innovation driver, legitimising pro-CSR polices rather than having them seen as a burden and sustaining the economic growth of the clusters. This phenomenon is particularly strong in certain contexts such as the Italian example SMEs usually practiced CSR in an informal, relationship based way (Coppa&Sriramesh, 2013). CSR among Italian SMEs developed along the networks of personal relationships of the owner–manager and of the top
management. The relationship with other firms as well as the community based on personal bonds and managed informally, consistent with cronyism present in Italian society
(Coppa&Sriramesh, 2013). It is through network interactions that firms learn about the problems that exist in the wider community and the options that they have to attempt to solve them. Of course it is vital to understand how different contexts can impact on this. The network is very important for the orientation of the firm, however a lack of resources, especially within very small enterprises, often means they participate in few network
activities or perhaps with only one important customer or supplier (Hansen et al, 2002). The risk of isolation is strong for SMEs who are unable to engage in clusters and with the constant increase in competitive pressures it could prove fatal in terms of their sustainability as a business. It would appear that the how-tos of building up network connections for SMEs would be a fruitful source of future research in this area
How different stakeholders are more important to smaller firms:
Engaging in a study of SMEs also means that it is important to understand how they concentrate on different stakeholders in a more direct comparison to larger firms who may need to negotiate with a wider range of players. Schlierer et al (2010)found that that traditional stakeholder theory cannot be scaled down to fit SMEs as the majority of owner– managersare focusing primarily on their „inner circle‟ of stakeholders consisting of
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motivations is not always seen in a positive light. Undue pressure can be looked at by SMEs in the same light as excessive regulations and that, although they agree it acts as an incentive, they believe that the best way they can be encouraged to be socially and environmentally responsible is through their own voluntary efforts (Baden et al , 2009). This could be linked to the informal nature of the operations of many SMEs which means that a formalised „box-ticking‟ approach will often be found lacking with a personalised self-enforcing strategy having the potential to be more successful. These considerations link to the section on government regulation which can cause similar problems to those outlined in Baden et al‟s paper.
Due to their smaller size, SMEs are also often influenced by suppliers.Size is important in terms of a firm‟s dependency on its clients in the sense of giving power to the client firm to shape ethical dimensions of CSR (Nisim& Benjamin, 2008). Zuraidah (2014) found that a commitment from various stakeholders will be a determining factor in the success of the implementation of proactive environmental initiatives and the advantages derived from such practices. Suppliers are the most significant stakeholders for SMEs as they facilitate both process-based changes and product-based change activities(Zuraidah, 2014). Different interactions can affect the strategic sustainability behaviour and subsequently the
sustainability orientated innovation practices of SMEs. Given their disposition to respond to external stimuli, a continuous activation through external factors such as suppliers will influence their strategic behaviour (Klewitz&Hansen, 2014). Klewitz and Hansen (2014) present a continuum of firm responses ranging from „resistant SMEs‟ who are ignorant of social factors and only seek to achieve compliance to „sustainability- rooted SMEs‟ who
integrate economic, environmental, and social aspects throughout all of their core operations. This has connotations towards how governments and local stakeholders could most
efficiently attempt to influence SME as it can be clearly seen that many still need basic education on the importance of engaging with local contexts. Due to the nature of operations of smaller firms it has become clear that internally generated motivations do not fully explain
engagement with particular CSR policies. This leads to the third proposition that SMESare
31 4.5 Demographics.
Impact of age and gender:
The impact of demographic differences the attitudes of managers towards CSR policies is an important area to understand. The process of ethical decision making is part of the wider learning process and certain demographic variables are posited to impact on how this process occurs (Ede et al, 2000). Age is a commonly occurring factorin the research. The first main study on demographic impact found that age was the most influential predictor of ethical attitudes and that when managers age they display more conservative ethical tendencies and are most apt to adopt stricter definitions of ethical behaviour. (Serwinek, 1992). Ede et al found that age was the only variable that produced consistently strong main effects with younger participants found to have a more ethical attitude in general. (Ede et al,
2000).Dawson et al (2002) disagreed stating, that the main difference in how ethical policies are carried out with respondents under 50 following more explicit rules and regulations whereas respondents over 50 were more likely to believe that business decisions could not be separated from personal moral decisions . This was posited as a result of their longer life experiences making them more aware of the underlying moral questions related to decision making. Gender was generally considered to have less of an impact on SME managers interpretations of what an ethical decision was, except in certain cases such as job
discrimination where females were more likely to view the hiring of a male over a female or the promoting of a friend over a more competent employee as very unethical(Serwinek, 1992).This may be as it is an area where women have suffered discrimination in the world of business.
Impact of the level of education:
The level of education was another variable that was found to be significant by a number of authors. Besser and Miller (2004) found that more educated respondents were less likely to adopt the idea of a „shared fate‟ rationale or a rationale based on achieving good public relations as a reason for engaging in CSR policies, this was due to a greater internal locus of control where they believed that they were able to influence the outcome of their business through their own action. More specifically, education has been found to be negatively correlated with the ethical values of honesty, integrity, and legal compliance (Smith
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very specific contexts such as one south-eastern US state (Smith& Oakley, 1994). This raises questions about generalizability.
Impact of status as minority manager:
33 4.6 Internal structural influences:
Aspects of the structure of SMEs that impact on their motivations:
The idea that the internal composition of a firm can help shape the motivations of managers due to how theynaturally operate is an idea that was found in the literature. Studies into this topic found that firm size was a moderately strong predictor of firm‟s behaviour in certain areas such as smaller firms being more likely to act ethically in marketing, although the nature of the relationship was unclear at that stage (Murphy et al, 1992). More recent studies have found that the characteristics of small firms are likely to shape what type of ethical dilemmas the manager is likely to experience. More specifically, firms are likely to be spread thin in terms of employees and face limited cash flows (Spence, 1999).Furthermore, smaller firms are more likely to be built on personal relationships, be mistrustful of bureaucracy and be controlled by informal mechanisms (Spence, 1999).These sized based characteristics are likely to impact on how firms act towards the ethical issues that arise. A fuller understanding of how these internal relationships operate may prove useful in explaining how size can limit the ability of firms to choose from a full set of decisions creating path dependant decision making
Behavioural impact of structure:
Certain specific firm behaviours can be reinforced by these characteristics. Lepoutre and Heene (2006) find that a smaller firm size results in the visibility of different issues being stronger thanin a larger firm. The imperative for socially responsible action is therefore mostly felt with regard to internal stakeholders and in a much lower level with regard to external stakeholders and the natural environment due to the increase in the ability of key employees to help define what behaviours are in the managers interest (Lepoutre&Heene, 2006). The informal structure and managerial control systems may help create this influence. Managers and employees in smaller firms, may be conditioned to avoid going along unethical actions due to these systems, however a lack of monitoring may make it possible for
unethical behaviours to be generated in other areas (Longenecker, 1989). Another element that a smaller size may effect is that issues seem more „close to life‟ and therefore less morally ambiguous in smaller firms, whereas similar issues may feel more abstract to managers working in larger firms. (Longenecker, 1989). This introduces a cognitive
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of the firms they run.Many managers of smaller firms are more demanding then permissive when it relates to ethical issues with many managers placing themselves at the „never acceptable‟ side of Longenecker‟s scale when it comes to a wide range of ethical issues (Longenecker et al , 1989). The nature of the smaller firm may force managers to be more insistent on creating stronger CSR policies in order to reduce employee‟s cutting of corners. The size of the company may also have an impact on their ability to build wide ranging CSR policies that can influence the actions of others. Pederson finds that although SMES have more value- related reasons behind engaging in CSR , small and medium sized firms in Denmark were less likely to get involved in promoting CSR along the supply chain as they lacked the bargaining power and the ability to allocate resources to the promotion of CSR activities ( Pederson, 2009). It is important to note these limitations in order for external parties to effectively encourage SMEs to become involved with CSR policies. As size can be seen to limit the incentives to get involved with certain elements of CSR it is therefore important for stakeholders and social organisations to get involved with targeted actions in order to encourage smaller firms to stay the course with CSR policies (Udayasankar, 2007). These ideas are supported in part in the works of Niehm et al (2008), who posit that a size threshold seems to exist. Family firmswhich grow in size,resources, and business capabilities were more likely to give support, receive support in return, and realize business success.
The ideathat medium sized firms in particular have a stronger potential to engage in CSR policies, is generally supported in the literature. A medium sized company can have a partial coexistence between the socio-tropism that is a characteristic of smaller firms and the
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36 4.7 Government Regulations:
How government regulations impact on SME motivations:
The impact of government regulations on the motivations of SME managers to engage in CSR was a key theme in the literature. Many papers provide prescriptions for how
government policies can be targeted at SME managers in order to increase their incentives to engage in CSR activity. Governments have the role of introducing sustainability policies into national and supranational discourse, thus helping the diffusion of institutional conditions conducive to CSR and through creating incentives for managers (Santos, 2011).As has been previously mentioned smaller firms sometimes face internal constraints that reduce their motivation to enact CSR policies, we see here that governments have the potential to help solve some of these issues. Walker et al. (2008)found that SMEs in Australia naturally lacked the motivation to engage in CSR policies due to perceived barriers of cost, time and a lack of return on investment. It is believed that governmental policies can help to overcome these issues through direct engagement with SMES and effective communication of the benefits of getting involved.
It is clear from a lot of the research conducted that SMEs are impacted by different drivers then larger firms and as a result many traditional government policies have no significant pressure on compliance. In the context of Hong Kong, SMEs were less concerned with their reputation then larger firms and were more concerned with competitiveness. Poor
government policy, a lack of education and a short term focus meant that there was a poor uptake of voluntary initiatives (Studer et al, 2008). Incentives that promise direct short term benefits are seen to be most likely to induce compliance for environmental policies among other areas, with fiscal instruments being one efficient way to ensure that manager‟s
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The idea of the institutional environment being important in helping to shape the motivation of SMEs is another recurring theme in the articles, with a number of prescriptions being offered as to how governments can target legislation to allow this to come to fruition. SME managers need more freedom and a strong social infrastructure in order to induce them to become involved with CSR policies (Spence&Schmidpeter, 2003).However, CSR
engagement is not always seen as a fully positive situation for firms as it can lead to inefficient use of resources and firms spreading themselves too thin amongst other issues. Managers are capable of being driven by ethical and moral values however. Policies that aidthe build-up of voluntary organisations, information centres and tax organisations to become more supportive would lead to greater mutual co-operation between all parties (Spence&Schmidpeter, 2003). SMEs need an approach with minimal impositions on their business in order to access government support (Stewart &Gapp, 2014). This is a crucial point to understand, as the informal nature of many SMEs operations do not link well to policies based on formal compliance which may have been originally designed with larger firms in mind. Many policies require strict reporting and compliance rules but this may serve as a death knell for the generation of motivation, there must be a stronger connection between policy development, business implementation and business activity (Stewart&Gapp, 2014). These ideas about what type of policies are likely to achieve success seem to remain
consistent across different contexts and different methodologies. Weaknesses of current policies:
The literature also frequently refers to the weaknesses inherent in the manner in which governments attempt to regulate CSR policies. Baden and Harwood (2011) found the imposition of CSR policies created a real risk of a „celling effect‟ whereby the mandated level of CSR is seen as the „ceiling‟ rather than the „floor‟ for the desired actions.This article showed a strong backlash against the imposition of regulations with many practitioners angered at the fact that local authorities felt that they would not act morally on their own with one respondent stating “Social responsibility comes from inside – you cannot legislate and tell people how to behave as they tend to rebel. You need to want to do it, and when you do, you do it well” (Baden & Harwood, 2011. Pg. 273). Clement and Hansen (2003) supported the view that many governments tailor policies in an inefficient manner, with many
38 Prescriptions for improving polices:
39 5. Results:
This thesis has provided a variety of explanations behind the motivations of SME managers for engaging in CSR. A systematic literature review determined that there are six main categories have been identified to explain how these motivations develop: Stakeholder relationships, personal values, demographic factors, strategic considerations, internal attributes of small firms and the impact of government regulations. The collation of 134 different papers allows for a number of propositions to be stated about each category. In terms of the managers values we can see that there are a wide array of influences on how they develop ranging from the family (Fitzgerald et al, 2010), to religious organisations
(Nejati&Amran, 2009). Of course there are a huge variety of different cultural contexts that must be taken into account here. Therefore, we can propose that SME managers have a greater ability to diffuse their values through their organisations and the growth of these values are often culturally based (Proposition 1). The smaller size of the organisations being looked at means that they have flatter organisational structures and smaller chains of
command, as a result the senior manager have a greater ability to enact values based on their own ethical orientations (Von Weltzien-Hoivik&Mele, 2009). It is clear from a wide array of studies that managers of smaller enterprises do tend to have ethical viewpoints that take into account sustainability initiatives and contributing to their local community.
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increasing compliance is enacting policies that ensure that these types of attitudes become the dominant school of thought on CSR in SMEs.
The increasingly strategic perspectives being adopted towards CSR links into the next proposition that SMESare more embedded in their local contexts meaning that their
stakeholders have a greater impact on setting the CSR agenda. Consumers, employees and the local community tend to be the most influential stakeholders (Proposition 3). It can be seen in that SMEs often tailor policies based on local opinions and due to their small size, stakeholders such as consumers and suppliers can have a large role on influencing their level of CSR. The fact that SMEs are closer to their stakeholders and build more direct
relationships and the idea that they are more flexible and can quickly respond to stakeholder demands and implement stakeholder policies make the importance of stakeholders to the CSR agenda inevitable (Sweeny, 2007). These characteristics emphasise that understanding
stakeholder relationships is vital as this is one the most important categories in terms of predicting the behaviours of smaller firms. The increasing sophistication of SME business clusters is also a key element of what it means to be embedded in local contexts. Networks help to diffuse best practises by a natural creation of respected authority through a mixture of transparency, group commitment and positive results (Murillo & Lozano, 2006). The impact of clusters could prove to be a crucial element of future research in this area.
Another area that was looked at in this research was the idea that demographic factors can play a role in a manager‟s cognition, a look at the research allows the fourth proposition to be stated. The age of the manager and their level of educational attainment are the most
important demographic factors influencing their motivations (Proposition 4) Demographic variables such as gender and membership of an ethnic minority group were considered to be less important in explaining outcomes in this area. This proposition allows the growth of a greater ability to predict what category of managers are more predisposed to act unethically in the face of ethical dilemmas at work (Au &Tse, 2001). The importance of behavioural and scenario based questionnaires as a strong form of methodology is clear here as they can help spot relevant personality traits in respondents such as egoism. Linking these traits with demographic factors such as age and level of education helps grow our understandings of how motivations form.
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setting policies. This section has resulted in the following proposition Medium sized firms have a greater ability to engage with CSR initiatives and some structural components can help shape the way managers craft policies (Proposition 5)Small size results in different visibility of issues to both the business and its constituents, diminishes the sense of impact on society and the natural environment and increases the power of peer pressure within a certain industry (Lepoutre&Heene, 2006).These characteristics link to the section on stakeholder relations as it results in SMEs feeling that tailoring their CSR actions to internal stakeholders is more important than dealing with the needs of external stakeholders (Lepoutre&Heene, 2006). The results of this section help to prove the importance of looking at size as a
determinant of firm‟s behaviours. Not only do the ethical issues faced tend to be different for smaller firms but some of the key characteristics of SMEs such as the fact that they have smaller numbers of employees, more simple organisational structures and informal reporting relationships tend to influence their responses (Spence, 1999).
Important findingswere found in the area of government regulations where it can be posited that Governmental regulations can have a key role to play in shaping the institutional environment,however they are currently poorly suited to the context of SMEs and should be revisited in order to more efficiently induce compliance. (Proposition 6) A lot of policies are based on formal compliance and have levels of red tape that smaller firms may struggle to adapt to. The idea of governments taking a targeted approach to policies in order to
42 6. Conclusions
In conclusion, this thesis collated a large variety of research in order to come up with a number of interesting propositions related to the factors motivating SME managers to engage with CSR. There were 6 main categories found throughout the research which ranged from the values of the manager to the importance of maintaining relationships with stakeholders. The information found throughout this systematic review adds to the literature in a number of ways. Information from many different sources and methodological backgrounds has been synthesised to help provide a fuller picture of what motivates SME managers. Previous research in this area has suffered from issues such as a lack of generalizability and
fragmentation within the field. Looking at a large number of contexts at once has enabled a number of factors that remain consistent across different national and cultural contexts to be identified.
The findings of the section on government regulations may be of particular importance. It has become clear that smaller firms are very susceptible to the influence of government
regulation but that regulations are currently poorly targeted. To improve on compliance levels, governments must target policies towards the specific contexts that smaller firms operate in and not just attempt to apply the policies previously used for larger corporations. It has been posited that the greater involvement of local government may be one way to
accomplish this. (Munoz-Torres & Rivera-Lirio, 2010). It must be noted here however that there is an opinion among some researchers that size is not a relevant area to look at to explain differences in how companies act. Blomback&Wigren (2008) claim that
characteristics such as local embededness , corporate governance and individual motivations are the main issues that impact on a firm‟s CSR motivation levels and that these variables impact on motivation regardless of the size of the firm being looked at. While this paper used a wide ranging literature review methodology it is clear from the results of this thesis that there are a lot of relevant issues related to size. The internal structure of the SME was even a reason in itself, as issues such as the informal managerial control and the simpler operational structures found in SMEs influenced how the CSR policies were developed and diffused through smaller firms.
Limitations:
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were expressed in different terms may have been exluded due to the search perameters. Also the varying definitions of what constitutes a small or medium sized enterprises that exist throughout the literture may hamper the strength ofcomparisons between different papers . Also, the thesis focuses only on journal articles which were published in English which could cause papers with relevant information to be omitted. Furthermore, the keyword-based identification of publications that was selected means that certain titles that may have matched the focus of this paper may have been omitted as they did not contain the required keywords in the title or the abstract of this paper, The time constraints of the research also limited the breadth of options that could be selected in terms of selecting exhaustive search critera. The fact that this thesis was conducted by one researcher also creates potential cognitive biases in the selection of articles. There were also some issues created from the methodologies selected by the researchers whose works were used in this thesis. A lot of the methodology was based on small samples and very specific contexts and although some common threads were found throughout the research a number of papers had limited generalisability. In particular , there was variety in the types of methodologies used , the predominant methodology was quantitative studies based on survey results which is a good sign that more empirically validated knowledge in this area is starting to build up. However, the fact that there were so many different types of methodology used suggests that there has not been much attempts made to collate different findings together with new studies looking at widely different contexts with little effort being made to build on previous research. Directions for future research:
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