Investigating The Impact Of Firm Size On Social Responsibility

Ó Springer 2006 Journal of Business Ethics (2006) 67:257–273 DOI 10.1007/s10551-006-9183-5 Investigating the Impact of Firm Size on Small Business Social Responsibility: A Critical Review ABSTRACT. The impact of smaller firm size on corporate social responsibility (CSR) is ambiguous. Some contend that small businesses are socially responsible by nature, while others argue that a smaller firm size imposes barriers on small firms that constrain their ability to take responsible action. This paper critically analyses recent theoretical and empirical contributions on the size–social responsibility relationship among small businesses. More specifically, it reviews the impact of firm size on four antecedents of business behaviour: issue characteristics, personal characteristics, organizational characteristics and context characteristics. It concludes that the small business context does impose barriers on social responsibility taking, but that the impact of the smaller firm size on social responsibility should be nuanced depending on a number of conditions. From a critical analysis of these conditions, opportunities for small businesses and their constituents to overcome the constraining barriers are suggested. KEY WORDS: small business social responsibility, CSR, SMEs, small business, entrepreneurship, shared responsibility ABBREVIATIONS: SMEs, small and medium-sized enterprises, CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, SBSR, small business social responsibility Jan Lepoutre is a PhD candidate in Applied Economics at Ghent University, Belgium. His dissertation focuses on the competences associated with small business social responsibility. Aime´ Heene is a professor at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Ghent University, Belgium. He teaches strategic management for private and for public organizations and currently focuses his research on (competenc