Environmental management and corporate social responsibility practices of small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to facilitate small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt environmental management (EM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. The study reveals SMEs" motivation, pressure, targets and methods for EM and CSR practices. Additionally, the paper investigates how these variables relate to employee number, turnover and geographical locations. The outcomes of the research will add value to SMEs decision-making processes in both strategic and policy levels (e.g. supplier selection) and policymakers" initiatives to make SMEs environment and socially friendly. Although there are studies on EM and CSR practices of SMEs, they mainly focus on impact of EM and CSR practices on business performance, and SMEs" motivation for adopting EM and CSR practices in specific country. Studies that reveal SMEs" motivation, pressure, targets and methods for EM and CSR practices and their relationship with their characteristics (e.g. size, turn over, and geographical location) are scant. This research bridges this gap. Our data originates from 223 carefully selected representative SMEs in the West Midlands, UK (105) and Kolkata, India (118) covering manufacturing and process industries. The relevant data was collected using questionnaires and analysed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) methods. The results reveal that perceptions of SMEs" motivation, pressure, targets and methods of EM and CSR practices vary considerably with respect to size, turn over and geographical location. The findings are significant to policymakers, client organizations and individual SME for improving EM and CSR practices.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by small and medium enterprises (SMEs): a systematic review

“…The factors identified included legislation, values of business owners and managers, relevance of stakeholders' engagement and pursuit for profitability (c.f. Tang & Tang, 2017;Dey et al, 2018). Although not common, external donors may sometimes motivate SMEs to participate in CSR (Coppa & Sriramesh, 2013).…”

The influence of CEO characteristics on corporate environmental performance of SMEs: Evidence from Vietnamese SMEs

“…Jenkins (2004) argued that SMEs are regarded as a dispute within the CSR -related fields debate because of SMEs' failure to activate with them. This view is supported by Dey et al (2018), who stated that SMEs are supposed to face the problem of cost reduction because CSR practices are expensive. Revell and Blackburn (2007) also pointed out that the shortage of sources such as lack of time and finance, and environmental protective perception lead SMEs to avoid to do activities towards environmental protection.…”

Untangling the Origins of Sustainable Commitment: New Insights on the Small vs. Large Firms’ Debate

“…The European Union defines SMEs as those that have less than 250 employees and an annual turnover lower than 50 million euros or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding 43 million euros [1]. These enterprises play a major role in the economic growth of all countries; they account for approximately 90% of the number of firms worldwide and employ about 50-60% of the global workforce [2,3]. In Europe, SMEs represent 99% of all enterprises and in the past five years, they have created around 85% of new jobs and provided two-thirds of the total private sector employment according to the European Commission [4].…”