Two important managerial strategies have shaped organizations’ initiatives in recent years: corporate social responsibility (CSR) and intellectual capital (IC). Organizations’ implementation of voluntary CSR practices implies a commitment that goes beyond mere actions and it constitutes a step toward securing benefits for these entities. In contrast, IC refers to a set of intangible organizational assets (i.e., human, structural, and relational capital) that are capable of providing greater value than tangible assets do. Putting both strategies into practice independently of each other is a source of competitive advantages for organizations, including more legitimacy in their sector. However, the present study sought to explore the possibility of strengthening the link between CSR and IC by integrating socially responsible practices into the configuration of each IC dimension. Thus, this research’s objective was to determine whether CSR initiatives can generate improvements in key IC components in organizations. The study included extremely diverse Spanish organizations ranging from small and medium-sized enterprises to large firms, private and public companies, and organizations serving multiple purposes, such as universities—all of which were implementing CSR initiatives. The partial least squares technique was applied to estimate a structural equation model to achieve the objective. The findings include that CSR improves organizations’ IC and that the resulting competitiveness is a source of legitimacy.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as an important strategy in business contexts. This study's main objective was to identify and characterize the basic elements of CSR in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that can contribute to improving these companies' competitiveness and legitimacy. The research was based on the premises defining CSR's scope laid out by the Spanish Association of Accounting and Business Administration and the conceptual framework for corporate responsibility proposed by the European Commission's Directorate-General Enterprise and Industry. A 2004 compilation of good practices in small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe provided the foundation for a systematic analysis isolating elements common to the two cited organizations' frameworks. This is a descriptive study, on a sample of 23 companies belonging to the Autonomous Community of Extremadura, in Spain, involved in the practice of CSR and very sensitized to implement this strategy. Based on this list of features, a theoretical framework of CSR was constructed in order to identify the most significant elements and distinguish those of greatest importance to MSMEs' competitiveness and legitimacy. The originality of this study combined public and private CSR frameworks to categorize the distinctive elements of CSR in MSMEs.