Why small tourism enterprises behave responsibly: using job embeddedness and place attachment to predict corporate social responsibility activities

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) decisions of small tourism entrepreneurs have received limited attention from existing studies. This study applies the management concept of ‘job embeddedness’ to conduct an in-depth investigation on how the job embeddedness of small tourism entrepreneurs influences their CSR decisions and to identify the vital role of place attachment as a functional and emotional bond in this process. Based on an extensive sample survey of 411 small tourism entrepreneurs, the results of this study reveal that entrepreneurs with a high degree of organization and community embeddedness will be motivated to act responsibly towards stakeholders in local place through place attachment. The recognition of place attachment provides a reasonable basis for explaining the process of small entrepreneurs’ fulfilling CSR activities from the perspective of the integration of profit and emotional altruism. This study emphasizes the critical role of entrepreneurs as an insider in local society through exploring the casual relationship of entrepreneurs’ job embeddedness, place attachment on their CSR decision, filling the research gap on CSR activities of SMTEs.