Learning to practice social responsibility in small business: challenges and conflicts

Fenwick, Tara

doi:10.1108/20412561011039753

Cited by 22 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Most companies stated that the tool gives them a concrete snapshot of their own SBSR, despite their distinct starting points regarding CSR awareness. Most companies also confirmed the importance of adding external information sources (link to external websites, literature, references, manuals) in order to implement SBSR actions (also confirmed by Fenwick, 2010). In addition, in certain countries where CSR is a well-established cultural concept, the tool encountered some difficulties such as ease-of-use or market competition with existent software (Heikura, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Small business social responsibility: the CSR4UTOOL web application

Corazza

2018

JAAR

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Purpose Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) positively represent the backbone of the European economic system and, negatively, they make a significant contribution to environmental pollution and social impacts. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how a new tool for supporting the adoption of small business social responsibility (SBSR) can be tailored in order to be more effective. Design/methodology/approach Theoretical framework – a literature analysis of how SMEs address sustainability issues will be discussed, especially the need for SME tools with the following features: quality, materiality, free of charge, anonymous, easy-to-use and easy to understand. This need has been confirmed by the literature of SBSR and also social accounting doctrine. Methodology – this paper analyzes CSR4UTOOL, an applied research project of a web-based application dedicated to SMEs in order to provide a self-assessment on sustainability performances. A technical paper aims to describe a specific development, technique or procedure that is capable of presenting a software tool or an experimental or computational method that should be well-tested and should preferably provide a solution to a problem and have some demonstrable practical values. Findings The recent studies over SBSR sustain the need of sustainability management tool for SMEs. A web-based tool co-designed and co-created with SMEs reveals the importance of new tools to support SBSR, especially for the global process of CSR downstreaming using a bottom-up perspective. Research limitations/implications Alongside the development of tailored, efficient tools to implement, manage, control and account for such social responsibilities, several authors have described organizational implications, managerial adaptations and practical features of such tools. As a technical paper, the aim of this research is to shed light on the new technology that has been adopted to solve a gap in both the literature and the real economy, and it answers to the specific call for SBSR tools. Practical implications CSR4UTOOL is based on a decision tree structure presenting several questions and indicators given by a profound benchmark of the most internationally well-known accountability standards. It translates accounting and non-accounting data as well as qualitative and quantitative data to a powerful source of information for entrepreneurs regarding their ethical and moral managerial conduct. A report on the performance of the company will be generated at the end of each session. Social implications This study has a practical social implication as it may concretely help entrepreneurs to self-assess their SBSR. IT technologies may represent a useful way to overcome the specific constraints on SMEs that when they are on track, they may also be more aware of the existent power of formalization in their social and environmental management practices. This kind of tool may help small entrepreneurs to be more aware of the fact that formalization may represent a strategic asset rather than a guarantee of morality. Originality/value This paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating how data collection over SBSR may be engineered and tailored using web application and ICT, even in a context of small businesses. This paper further responds to a call from Spence (2016) and Johnson et al. (2016) for interdisciplinary approaches to investigating sustainability in SMEs, the validation and application of existent theories on CSR within the context of SMEs, through foregrounding use of innovative software and web applications.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 64%

Small business social responsibility: the CSR4UTOOL web application

Corazza

2018

JAAR

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“…Так, анализ деятельности 73 малых и средних предприятий из большого мегаполиса, расположенного в юго-западной части США, показал, что владельцев малого и среднего бизнеса мотивирует заниматься благотворительностью и другими видами социально ответственной деятельности чувство морального долга. При этом помощь связывается с личными обязательствами, которым следуют даже в том случае, когда социально ответственная деятельность не выгодна для компании [Fenwick 2010].…”

Section: основания социальной ответственно стиunclassified

Social Responsibility: Motives, Values, Moral Grounds (On the Example of Business Organizations and NGOs of Volgograd)

Tokareva

Golub

2019

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The authors present the results of the study of motives, as well as value and moral grounds determining the socially responsible activities of commercial and non-profit organizations. The research is based on the hypothesis that the social responsibility of organizations is determined not only by economic and sociological factors (fixed concepts of "integrity", "voluntary contribution", "social investment", "consideration of public expectations", "partnership", "voluntary environmental reporting", etc.), but also moral and ethical attitudes, subjects orientation to moral values. These attitudes and orientations and practical experience related to them are objectified in the language with the help of such concepts as "charity", "unselfishness", "help", "care", etc. In order to test the hypothesis, the researches conducted an empirical study within which 15 experts were identified and interviewed. Data collection was carried out by the method of in-depth semi-structured interview with the subsequent analysis of the opinions expressed by experts. The qualitative research methods made it possible to identify and analyze the semantic content of ideas about social responsibility of representatives of business organizations and NGOs in Volgograd. The study showed the importance of not only economic opportunities for socially responsible activities, but also of moral grounds, because even in tight financial conditions the moral need to provide assistance and care encourage entrepreneurs to seek resources and opportunities for these purposes. The authors conclude that the initiative participation of business in solving social problems of the region (regardless of the declared goals and chosen forms) is determined by internal imperatives: personal value "coordinate system" and moral and ethical attitudes of business leaders and NGOs. According to the results of the study, socially responsible activity of business organizations and NGOs in Volgograd is often determined by personal relationships between people, rather than institutional ties. It is shown that the restriction of the expansion and institutionalization of socially responsible practices of business organizations in the region is due to their lack of financial resources. However, this does not prevent representatives of Volgograd business to respond to requests for help, but also to initiate helping behavior. The study showed that in conditions of lack of financial resources, moral and ethical factors (duty, care, loyalty, gratitude, unselfishness, justice, empathy, love for people) play a decisive role in motivating helping behavior and charity. The recommendations formulated by the results of the research are designed to contribute to the formation in the regional community of the attitude to socially responsible behavior as a natural component of human life. This will allow wider use of moral arguments and non-material incentives to promote and improve the efficiency of socially responsible activities of companies in our region.

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“…The most important challenges ofpracticing CSR are summarized as follows: 42 1. Educating employees, customers, and other stakeholders: For many, CSR is a new concept.…”

Section: Challengesofpracticingcsrmentioning

confidence: 99%

Studying the Influence of Airlines Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumers Loyalty

Khairat¹,

Maher²

2014

Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hos

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Nowadays, integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives into business is an important challenge facing organizations development. Corporations that embrace this concept reap many benefits including customer loyalty, positive attitudes toward brands, customer trust, positive publicity and better financial performance. Increased spending on CSR initiatives is expected to increase customer satisfaction and build competitive advantage. In today's competitive airline business environment, companies are striking to retain their existing customers and gain the repurchase intention of customers. As a result, an increasing number of airlines have implemented CSR initiatives. CSR programs become active channels for building customer loyalty as customers appear to provide greater support for companies that are socially and environmentally responsible. Accordingly, Customer loyalty becomes one of the most essential consumers behaviors that airlines endeavor to influence through the use of corporate social responsibility as a marketing tool in their strategies.Therefore, this paper aims at exploring the relationship between corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty in the airline industry. It also tries to discover the main critical factors that have more effect on social responsibility in the airline industry. To achieve the purposes of this paper, a model was developed to measure the influence of airlines corporate social responsibility activities in customer loyalty and airline image. This model includes 16 attributes, which have been selected to cover airlines CRS activities, and 21 initial items for measuring customer loyalty. The proposed model was presented as a self administrated questionnaire. The sample chosen in this study includes mainly international airlines passengers (727 passengers). Furthermore, the analysis of simple linear regression andspearman correlation are applied. The results of this study confirm that there is a significance statistical relationship between airlines CRS activities and customer loyalty. The results also determine that social responsibility activities related to customers and community are the most important factors affecting customer perception of the airline image. AbstractNowadays, integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives into business is an important chall organizations development. Corporations that embrace this concept reap many benefits including customer loya attitudes toward brands, customer trust, positive publicity and better financial performance. Increased spend initiatives is expected to increase customer satisfaction and build competitive advantage. In today's compe business environment, companies are striking to retain their existing customers and gain the repurchase intention o As a result, an increasing number of airlines have implemented CSR initiatives. CSR programs become active building customer loyalty as customers appear to provide greater support for companies that are socially and envi responsible. Accordingly, ...

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Learning to practice social responsibility in small business: challenges and conflicts

Cited by 22 publications

References 33 publications

Small business social responsibility: the CSR4UTOOL web application

Small business social responsibility: the CSR4UTOOL web application

Social Responsibility: Motives, Values, Moral Grounds (On the Example of Business Organizations and NGOs of Volgograd)

Studying the Influence of Airlines Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumers Loyalty

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