Small Business Engagement with Sustainability in Regional Australia

Lucas, Trevor; Cunningham, Robert; Lamberton, Geoff

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2304559

Cited by 4 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 20 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…From the data analysis findings, the majority of respondents agreed that financial considerations are a pervasive characteristic of CSR reporting in Sub-Saharan Africa. While empirical studies have found mixed results on the relationship between profitability and CSR disclosure (Ponnu and Okoth, 2009), companies generally consider CSR-related expenses as additional, often time avoidable, cost (Lucas et al, 2009). The last thematic category that characterises CSR reporting in Sub-Saharan Africa is that reporting is mandatory at the international level (for instance, ISO accreditation).…”

Section: Characteristics Of Csr Reporting In Sub-saharan Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the public policy perspective of CSR implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Samy

Ogiri

Bampton

2015

Social Responsibility Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the public policy perspective of corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa. There has been an increase in the number of countries adopting a national policy for CSR practice, particularly in the Western society. Despite the growing awareness about the role of government in CSR promotion, governments in Sub-Saharan Africa are yet to evolve policies that could help promote CSR in the region. As drivers of CSR, governments hold resources, like access to regulated parts of society that makes the inclusion of CSR opportunities relevant to strategic and operational management. From the extant literature, the role of government in defining and shaping the field of CSR is gaining wider acceptability. Design/methodology/approach – Using a qualitative research approach, this paper examines the current status of CSR implementation, particularly from the public policy perspective in selected Sub-Saharan African countries. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with policymakers and policy implementers. The study adopted a thematic analysis and developed a rigorous phenomenological design to reveal the insights to CSR policy-making. Findings – The findings established that the status of CSR implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa is influenced by absence of national CSR policy, CSR being mainstreamed in government constitution and CSR being a company initiative action to comply with international code of business conduct. Practical implications – The results of this study could have policy implications for both executive and MPs of national governments for CSR regulatory policies. Originality/value – In most developing countries, including Sub-Saharan African countries, the aforementioned institutional conditions are often an exception. There are both no legal and regulatory frameworks for Multinational Corporation activities and their socio-ecological impact, or such regulations may exist but are not adequately enforced (Rwabizambuga, 2007). This situation, unfortunately, has created a huge reporting gap between what organisations do and what they report regarding CSR. Hence, this original study adds to the body of knowledge for this region by revealing the central issues around the phenomenon.

show abstract

Section: Characteristics Of Csr Reporting In Sub-saharan Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the public policy perspective of CSR implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Samy

Ogiri

Bampton

2015

Social Responsibility Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Much of the research that has been undertaken on CSR is aimed at "big" business; these large corporations are run very differently than SMEs hence, research on CSR relating to SMEs is necessary. There is a noteworthy gap in the literature regarding SMEs and sustainability issues (Lucas, 2009) and therefore research focused on CSR and the construction industry is much needed (Chiveralls et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation of corporate social responsibility in Australian construction SMEs

Bevan

Yung

2015

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) related activities in small to medium sized construction enterprises within Australia. Reasons behind the implementation level are also evaluated. Design/methodology/approach – Quantitative and qualitative company level data from 28 Australian small to medium sized construction enterprises were collected using an in-depth questionnaire. Levels of CSR implementation in three aspects, namely, environmental, social and ethical, were measured. Each aspect was broken down into sub-areas and implementation scores were aggregated and normalised. Awareness level and concern for economic aspect, the two hypothesised reasons for level of implementation, were also measured. Non-parametric correlation analyses were used to examine the hypotheses. Findings – The findings suggest small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) incorporate some aspects of CSR into their business activities even though they do not refer to the practices as CSR, as none of them have a formal CSR policy in place. Most SMEs in the construction industry implement ethical and economic aspect of CSR; however implementation across environmental and social issues is limited. Non-parametric correlation analyses show that higher awareness of CSR issues leads to higher levels of implementation and that concern about economic aspect is not a reason why CSR is not implemented into business practices. Research limitations/implications – Everett Rogers’ diffusion paradigm can also be applied to CSR implementation, but more research works are required to theoretically and empirically examine the relationships between CSR implementation and economic aspect. Originality/value – It is apparent that there is a significant gap in the research regarding Australian SMEs and sustainability issues as the majority of the literature is focused upon large organisations even though the approaches taken by SMEs towards CSR are very different to those of large corporations. The SME business sector is a significant sector in terms of its environmental, economic and social impacts. Hence recognition of this sector is growing and is now becoming the focus of an agenda to promote the implementation of CSR practices in SMEs. This paper aims to provide useful and detailed information to add to what is currently an underdeveloped body of knowledge in this area.

show abstract

“…With environmental and social change combining with the increasingly competiveness of the global economy, sustainability of businesses [17,18] is a key issue identified for the Darling Downs region [16]. The Darling Downs region in Queensland, Australia, is a prominent food production and mineral resource producing area [19].…”

Section: Sustainability Of Business Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Big Data Based Intelligent Decision Support System for Sustainable Regional Development

Zhou

Noble

Cotter

2015

2015 IEEE International Conference on Smart City/SocialCom/SustainCom (SmartCity)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract-Timely intelligent decision making is increasingly important for modern society. With the availability of big data and advanced artificial intelligence in decision making, more objective and evidence-based quantitative smart decisions can be made in a timely manner. This research proposed a big data based intelligent decision support system (B-IDSS) for sustainable business development. The system can be used by both the government agencies and corporate business (e.g. farms. mining) in advanced planning, collaboration and management. This paper also addresses the performance optimization as bilevel decision-making problem with one leader and multiple followers. An extended Kuhn-Tucker approach is introduced as one of the algorithms that can be adapted in the system.

show abstract

Small Business Engagement with Sustainability in Regional Australia

Cited by 4 publications

References 20 publications

Examining the public policy perspective of CSR implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Examining the public policy perspective of CSR implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Implementation of corporate social responsibility in Australian construction SMEs

A Big Data Based Intelligent Decision Support System for Sustainable Regional Development

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About