The relationship between CSR meaning and CSR practices: the case of SMES

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the meaning attached to CSR as a concept and the legal, economic and ethical CSR activities of SMEs in Zimbabwe. For a long time researchers have concentrated on studying the impact of CSR practices on the operations of SMEs and yet very little regard has been given to investigating the relationship between CSR meaning and CSR activities in SMEs.The study made use of questionnaires to collect data from a sample of 201 SMEs residing in the region of Harare. The correlation method was adopted in order to examine the relationship between CSR meaning and CSR activities of SMEs in Zimbabwe. The results of the study revealed that the meaning of CSR is related to the major CSR activities undertaken by SMEs in Zimbabwe. This means SMEs that indulge in donating money and goods to need people will define CSR as donations in cash or kind. Therefore the meaning attached to CSR must be related to the legal, economic and ethical CSR activities of SMEs in Zimbabwe. For this reason there is no standard meaning for CSR.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Priorities in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) of the Industrial Sector of Sialkot, Pakistan

“…To implement feasible and beneficial CSR practices, managers should understand the social needs of their society and design the CSR activities according to the needs of the local community. As mentioned by Manuere and Phiri (2016) that the meaning of CSR is related to the major CSR activities undertaken by SMEs in a specific context and hence, SMEs that indulge in donating money and goods to needy people will define CSR as donations in cash.…”

“…Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Priorities in the Small … 3 meaning and CSR activities in SMEs in the developing countries' context (Manuere and Phiri 2016). This study attempts to fill a gap in the existing literature and responds to research calls for more insights into firms' s CSR activities from the perspective of managerial employees (Perrini et al 2007) and from the perspective of SMEs and developing countries' perspectives.…”

“…Whereas, Davies and Crane (2010) and Waddock (2004) identifies ethical, legal and economic as core components of any CSR activity. Dahlsrud (2008) studied AQ3 37 meanings of CSR and discovered that there are five dimensions of CSR namely, the environmental dimension, the social dimension, the economic dimension, the stakeholder dimension and the voluntariness dimension (Manuere and Phiri 2016).…”

“…These type of differences in structure and management might affect the ways in which CSR activities are conducted (Ketola et al 2009). A small number of studies have been conducted on the SMEs and CSR activities (See Handfield et al 2006;Worthington et al 2006), however, still this is not clear which activities are better for the SMEs or beneficial (Jenkins 2006) and also in which activates they engage and prioritize (Manuere and Phiri 2016). Generally, SMEs focus on human misery and intensively engage with local society, for example, sponsoring local events and concern for employees' health and satisfaction (Jenkins 2006).…”

“…The main reason is that the empirical data necessitated it to be placed separately from legal because of its importance to the leather sector. Philanthropy has been placed under the social dimension or ethical domain of CSR which pertains to the relationship between business and society(Manuere and Phiri 2016). The economic dimension of the CSR, based on the empirical data, pertains to socioeconomic activities of the firms in a way that takes into account the legal and social aspects seriously.…”