Socially responsible strategies in SMEs: a study in six European countries

This paper seeks to assess the management practices and to pinpoint drivers of socially responsible strategies for small and medium-sized businesses in the food industry in Western and Eastern European countries. The study revealed same features and differences in the CSR practice in SMEs operating in countries with different levels of socio-economic development. The analysis singled factors that influence the application of social responsibility in SMEs at most: the level of depth and agile approach to business performance. The methodology is based on extended 5Ps social marketing index and analyses quantitative data to outline the social responsibility strategy from the SMEs perspective in 6 different countries. The quantitative data have been collected using an online questionnaire collecting 750 entries, which were analysed using Stata software, and also qualitatively verified. This new assessment approach to the socially responsible concept provides rich material that can be explored to identify correlations between CSR and desired business performance indicators for SMEs.