Gender difference in corporate social responsibility implementation in Lithuanian SMEs

Abstract

Research background: There are many scientific papers dealing with the challenges of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) implementation at the company level. However, there are few studies dealing with gender difference between female and male managers in the perception towards CSR initiative.
 Purpose of the article: To understand the differences between male and female managers’ behaviour in the process of CSR implementation in companies.
 Methods: A survey of managers at different levels in Lithuanian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) was performed in 2019. The study focused on the female and male respondents’ answers to the participation in CSR implementation, their perception about CSR implementation and the most important issues for them in that process.
 Findings & Value added: The results of the study indicated that, compared to their male counterparts, female respondents highlighted different factors having impact on successful implementation of CSR initiatives. Female managers were more convinced to the benefits of CSR practices than their male counter-parts. The “Communication skills” were defined as the most important for implementing CSR strategy for the females and “Understanding of CSR strategy” for males. For most of the female managers, “Sociality” was the most important competence necessary for a leader, followed by “Global and holistic thinking”, however, the male respondents were more doubtful about all the necessary competencies for a sustainability leader. The main theoretical value added of the paper is elicitation of the differences between male and female managers in the perception of CSR initiatives and necessary skills of a leader for implementing these initiatives in SMEs. The practical and managerial im-plications were also provided for the strengthening of the CSR activities in SMEs.

Students’ Perceptions on the University Social Responsibilities of a Malaysian Private University: Does Gender Matter?

“…This has further supported Ugwuozor (2020) notion that exposure to business ethics education has a significant effect on gender, implying that male and female students have different perspectives on CSR issues in the Nigerian context. In addition, Lu et al, (2020) wish to examine the gender difference in CSR implementation in Lithuanian small-medium enterprises (SMEs). The results revealed that female managers were more convinced of the benefits of the implementation of CSR initiatives, making them perceived CSR more favorable than male managers.…”

“…Furthermore, researchers argued that students give more attention to USR practices than other university stakeholders (Kouatli, 2019, Latif et al, 2021, which justified examining students as the institution's main stakeholder. In addition, previous studies have argued that gender plays a significant role when it comes to perceiving the social responsibility practices, where female students will be paying more attention to the social responsibility initiatives as compared to male students (Berényi & Deutsch, 2017;Lu et al, 2020), while other studies found that gender did not influence students' perception on the social responsibility (Teixeira et al, 2018).…”

Gender question: Econometric answer

“…As there is still an open discourse on what problems female face in comparison to men (e.g. Access to finance, business environment), how females perceive the business environment and what challenges they face (Lu et al, 2020).…”

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Renewable Energy Development in the Baltic States

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