Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility of Small and Medium Enterprises in Japan-Lessons Learnt

Abstract

<jats:p>Japan is a high income economy country and scored well in terms of CPI index. Since Malaysia’s intention is to move towards a high income economy there is much to learn from SMEs in Japan. A study was conducted on 17 SMEs in Japan and data collection includes survey and interviews. Amongst lessons learned are that SMEs in Japan place a great respect on seniority and they treat their business as one family. SMEs in Japan also place high importance on customer satisfaction, they do not believe in “quick wins” and will ensure that expansion of business is made progressively. They also view preserving traditional culture as one of their responsibility. One of the challenges they faced are the declining sales due to the lesser number of tourists in Japan and declining demand of traditional products. Success of SMEs in Japan is partly because of the ability of the government in Japan to “make the blue collars’ conditions equal to the white collars,” especially involving the expanded application of monthly-payment, life-time employment, seniority-based payment and promotion system in SMEs similar to large corporation.</jats:p>

Corporate Social Responsibility and Performance in SMEs: Scientific Coverage

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