On the optimal combination of corporate social responsibility practices of unlisted small and medium enterprises

There is an extensive empirical literature on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firms' financial performance. However, this literature mainly refers to large corporations and/or listed firms. This paper aims to investigate the impact of CSR on the financial performance of SMEs. Using an original database of 5,257 French SMEs, we show that the adoption of CSR practices has a positive but weak effect on their financial performance. To develop this further, we analysed the interactions of CSR practices to assess the best combination of CSR components that positively influence SMEs' financial performance. Our results show that French SMEs benefit more from their pro-social behaviour when they choose a combination of CSR components best suited to their characteristics. However, according to the literature, SMEs engage in fewer CSR activities than larger firms. Therefore, from an economic policy point of view, SMEs should be helped to understand the positive aspects of CSR, for example by facilitating certification and labelling or by strengthening inter-firm sponsorship operations in terms of CSR.