A Uk Case Study Perspective
Management Action Research (BUS530M)
October 30, 2012
REACTION PAPER FOR "HOW CAN SMEs EFFECTIVELY IMPLEMENT THE CSR AGENDA? A UK CASE STUDY PERSPECTIVE?"
Key points
Corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate governance (CG), corporate citizenship and triple bottom line (TBL) became more or less synonyms for the emerging effort to determine the meaning of ethical business. In broadest sense, all these agendas aim to translate the complexity and holism of business-society interface into organizational realities and operational settings (Lunheim, 2003) As a conclusion, it can be stated that the implementation of the CSR agenda imporoved the competitive advantage of the business. Aspects of CSR * Internal Dimension * External Dimension
These aspects are adapted from the European Commission's Green Paper (Eurpean Comission, 2001); The Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index (Knoepfel, 2001), Mallenbaker (2003) and Kok et al, (2001)
Insights
CSR can serve as a vehicle for business improvement and building of competitive advantage for SMEs.
Questions
What is CSR? CSR is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society.
What are the drivers of both initial and continuing SME engagement? Drivers of both initial and continuing SME engagement include personal interest and fulfillment, a desire to implement just good business practice, improved morale and motivation, giving something back to the local community and enhancing business reputation.
What are the main barriers of further engagement? Fear of bureaucracy, time and cost are the main barriers to further engagement, but interestingly this is not the experience of most of the SMEs who are engaged. In other words, barriers tend to be built or perceptions rather than reality.
Applications
In order to run organizations profitably yet in a socially and environmentally responsible way, SMEs run a concept called CSR.
October 30, 2012
REACTION PAPER FOR "HOW CAN SMEs EFFECTIVELY IMPLEMENT THE CSR AGENDA? A UK CASE STUDY PERSPECTIVE?"
Key points
Corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate governance (CG), corporate citizenship and triple bottom line (TBL) became more or less synonyms for the emerging effort to determine the meaning of ethical business. In broadest sense, all these agendas aim to translate the complexity and holism of business-society interface into organizational realities and operational settings (Lunheim, 2003) As a conclusion, it can be stated that the implementation of the CSR agenda imporoved the competitive advantage of the business. Aspects of CSR * Internal Dimension * External Dimension
These aspects are adapted from the European Commission's Green Paper (Eurpean Comission, 2001); The Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index (Knoepfel, 2001), Mallenbaker (2003) and Kok et al, (2001)
Insights
CSR can serve as a vehicle for business improvement and building of competitive advantage for SMEs.
Questions
What is CSR? CSR is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society.
What are the drivers of both initial and continuing SME engagement? Drivers of both initial and continuing SME engagement include personal interest and fulfillment, a desire to implement just good business practice, improved morale and motivation, giving something back to the local community and enhancing business reputation.
What are the main barriers of further engagement? Fear of bureaucracy, time and cost are the main barriers to further engagement, but interestingly this is not the experience of most of the SMEs who are engaged. In other words, barriers tend to be built or perceptions rather than reality.
Applications
In order to run organizations profitably yet in a socially and environmentally responsible way, SMEs run a concept called CSR.