Relationship between corporate social responsibility and competitive performance in Spanish SMEs: Empirical evidence from a stakeholders’ perspective

Abstract

In a financial economic scenario in which the corporate survival of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is more conditioned than ever by competitive performance, this paper aims to show that the strategic incorporation of socially responsible actions, more concerned and engaged with stakeholders, contributes to improve the competitiveness of these organizations. Thus, the existence of a direct or mediated relationship between the development of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices and competitive performance has been analyzed from a multi-stakeholder perspective. To accomplish this task, data were collected from a sample of 481 Spanish SMEs and the technique of partial least squares (PLS) was used. Outcomes show that the development of CSR practices contributes to increase the competitive performance both directly and indirectly, through the ability of these organizations to manage their stakeholders. This study, therefore, supports the social impact hypothesis and offers evidence about some intangibles such as the relational capacity mediate the causal effect between CSR and competitive performance.

Sustainability and financial performance of small and medium sized enterprises: A bibliometric and systematic literature review

“…Also Herrera Madueno, Larran Jorge, Martinez Conesa, and Martinez‐Martinez () consider intangible elements in their analysis. This paper aims to study the existence of a relationship between the development of CSR practices (measured with reference to environment, employees, local community, and customers) and competitive performance (measured with reference to some key items, such as sales, market share, customer satisfaction, and profitability) from a multistakeholder perspective.…”

Regional CSR Policies and SMEs’ CSR Actions: Mind the Gap—The Case of the Tourism SMEs in Crete

“…The relationship between SME CSR actions and competitiveness has been studied in the literature [5][6][7][8][9]13]. Apospori et al [13] presents a literature review regarding the investigation of the relationship between SME CSR and competitiveness.…”

“…The results of this study suggest that CSR actions such as workforce, society, market-oriented, and regulated CSR activities have a significant positive impact on SMEs competitiveness. Madueno et al [5] studied the relationship between corporate social responsibility and competitive performance of Spanish SME's using a multi stakeholder perspective. The study was based on data collected from 481 Spanish SMEs and used Partial Least Squares (PLS) to investigate the direct and mediated effect of CSR actions on competitive performance.…”

“…The relationship between CSR and firm performance in the tourism sector has been investigated indifferent geographical settings and different market segments [1][2][3][4][5]. Rodriguez et al (2007) [21] explored the relationship between social-environmental responsibility and performance among 912 hotel firms in Spain, and found that hotel firm performance is strongly positively correlated with social-environmental responsibility.…”

“…Over time scholars suggested that CSR may become a more integral part of corporate strategy [3] and, thus, may have the potential to produce competitiveness benefits [3,4]. CSR is not applicable only to large Multinational Companies (MNCs) but it is also very relevant for Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs).Therefore, SMEs' CSR actions may potentially contribute to the enhancement of SMEs' competitiveness [5][6][7][8][9].…”