Exploring the integration of corporate social responsibility into the strategies of small- and medium-sized enterprises: A systematic literature review

Ortiz-Avram, Daniela; Domnanovich, Julia; Kronenberg, Christopher; Schölz, Markus

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.011

Cited by 94 publications

(66 citation statements)

References 127 publications

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“…All LRs state that gaps exist in CSR research. A number of authors highlight that research is mostly at the organizational level, ignoring the wider ecosystem in which a company operates [18,19] while behavioral analysis at an individual level is largely neglected as well [1, [20][21][22]. Thus, there is a need for multilevel research that is capable of integrating separate levels of analysis: institutional, organizational, and individual [23,24].…”

Section: Literature Analysis and Research Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A second research gap is a lack of investigation into the underlying mechanisms which link CSR with outcomes [23,24]. A third is the absence of a standardized definitional framework and accepted theories [18,21,[25][26][27].…”

Section: Literature Analysis and Research Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4 Sustainable entrepreneurship [18,42,111] 3 Sustainable business model [21,26,112] 3 Sustainable strategy [22,113] 2 CSR standards [114,115].…”

Section: Conclusion Implications and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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In Search of Sustainable Value: A Structured Literature Review

2020

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The concept of value, where shareholders are the main recipients of the created value, is changing towards more comprehensive models, which respond to the increased stakeholder awareness and urgent sustainability agenda. Hart and Milstein (2003) elaborated the widely used sustainable value concept in which they characterize temporal and spatial dimensions of value, and suggest strategic drivers for sustainability. Although the framework is highly cited, there is no review on the changes over more than ten years. In this paper, we adopted a structured literature review methodology to discover how the concept of sustainable value has been used by researchers and how it has been developed. Our findings show that sustainable value has mainly been used as the general phrase to describe positive business results instead of using it as a concept. Scholars, who make an in-depth analysis of sustainable value do not emphasize the time horizon of sustainable value as its peculiar characteristic while broad stakeholder surrounding is called to be an important feature of sustainable value. Additionally, strategic drivers for sustainability have moved from being purely environmental as in Hart and Milstein’s (2003) concept: globalization, economic fluctuations, and knowledge innovation have become as important as green technologies and carbon-reduction policies.

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Section: Literature Analysis and Research Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Analysis and Research Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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In Search of Sustainable Value: A Structured Literature Review

2020

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“…In contrast to large enterprises, it is harder for SMEs to launch SD, as they commonly suffer from a scarcity of resources. Once SMEs strive to launch SD, they must consider their own features to effectively and efficiently utilize resources [11,25]. Most previous studies have focused on discussing the current conditions, business models and other attributes of SMEs.…”

Section: Small and Medium Enterprisesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Development Performance for Small and Medium Enterprises Using a Fuzzy Synthetic Method-DEMATEL

Chen

et al. 2019

Sustainability

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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are forced to adhere to sustainable development (SD) regulations and standards. However, SMEs encounter difficulty in assessing their performance due to the lack of an efficient and effective approach to deal with the uncertainties in hierarchical relationships and interrelationships. Moreover, interrelations exist among the proposed attributes that increase the difficulty of the assessment. To overcome these issues, exploratory factor analysis is used to screen out the less important attributes and build a hierarchal structure. The fuzzy synthetic method addresses the hierarchical structure and decision-making, and a trial evaluation laboratory assesses the interrelationships among the attributes by providing a visual interrelationship map. The results indicate that strategic and financial management are the major problems for SMEs. SD relies on enhancing sustainable supply chain performance, sustainable human resources and environmental management. This study contributes by not only filling the information gap for SD for SMEs but also providing a guideline for improvement. The theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.Sustainability 2019, 11, 4119 2 of 25 extended the concept to balance economic, environmental and social aspects. Wu et al. [4] argued that SD cannot take only economy, environment and society into account but also must consider operations, resilience, the long term and stakeholders. Witjes [5] found that enterprises are impacted by diverse SD aspects, and these impacts are not limited to only environmental or social aspects. Launching SD not only promotes the reputation of an enterprise and fulfills the expectations of the public but also becomes a core competence in competing with rivals. Although prior studies have extensively discussed SD, a discussion from the perspective of SMEs and a guideline for improvement is lacking.SMEs exist in diverse industries and often face resource constraints in developing SD. Thus, 70% of all industrial pollutants are generated by SMEs [6]. A previous study has demonstrated that approaches to launching SD must be formulated with SME features rather than simply shifting SD practices from large enterprises to SMEs, as the latter approach has been indicated to be unsuitable [7]. Although large enterprises and governments have attempted to increase SME engagement in sustainability initiatives, a framework allowing SMEs to clarify and launch the requested SD arrangements is lacking [8][9][10]. In addition, ways to assess performance and expressively engage SMEs in real SD management and practices are absent in previous studies [11].Prior studies have not proposed valid and reliable hierarchical structures or dealt with the interrelationships among the attributes. For instance, Udo and Jansson [12] noted that SD is a multidimensional, multidisciplinary, and interdisciplinary problem of significant complexity and uncertainty. To deal with SD assessment, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is employed to screen the attribu...

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“…Socially responsible companies are those that "take corporate social actions to meet stakeholders' ethical expectations via managerial activities, to advance a social good beyond legal requirements in the best interests of stakeholders" [47]. CSR activities align the requirements of different stakeholders [48] and include both economic drivers and ethical values [49], however many companies do not have clearly defined strategic CSR practices [50]. Research carried out by Ting and Yin [48] suggests that CSR practices related to customers and employees have a positive impact on a company's financial performance, while conversely, environmental practices have a negative impact on financial performance.…”

Section: The Impact Of Csr Activities On Environmental Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Factors Affecting the Environmental Practices of Companies: The Case of Serbia

2019

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Environmental practices are often considered external to the business, and the impacts of self-regulation and other CSR company practices on environmental practices are important but not fully understood-especially in transitional and developing countries. The aim of this paper is to explore factors that influence the environmental practices of companies operating in Serbia. We observed four types of self-regulations (core values, codes of conduct, ISO 9001, and ISO 14001); the level of CSR practices in relationships with employees, customers, the local community, and society, and related to business transparency; as well as company features related to types of operations (manufacturing vs. service), size, and internationalization (multinational ownership and export activities). Based on the SEM analysis of data collected from 178 companies operating in Serbia, the findings showed that smaller, manufacturing companies that applied the observed types of self-regulations, which have a higher level of employee relations and are more social and community involved, are more likely to have higher levels of environmental practice. Among the observed self-regulation types, only ISO 14001 certification proved to have an individual effect on company environmental practices. However, our results also showed that the influence of core values, applied codes of conduct, and ISO 9001 certification cannot be neglected.Sustainability 2019, 11, 5960 2 of 17 the decoupling phenomenon, the discrepancy between policies and practice, or the formal adoption of self-regulation by a company that does not become incorporated into the day-to-day routine [16] has its roots in the company's intention to communicate more than achieve [11]. The public disclosure of self-regulations related to environmental activities in order to present a proactive environmental image by providing greenwashing [3] raises concerns related to the effectiveness of such self-regulations.

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Exploring the integration of corporate social responsibility into the strategies of small- and medium-sized enterprises: A systematic literature review

Cited by 94 publications

References 127 publications

In Search of Sustainable Value: A Structured Literature Review

In Search of Sustainable Value: A Structured Literature Review

Sustainable Development Performance for Small and Medium Enterprises Using a Fuzzy Synthetic Method-DEMATEL

The Factors Affecting the Environmental Practices of Companies: The Case of Serbia

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