Environmental management and corporate social responsibility practices of small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to facilitate small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt environmental management (EM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. The study reveals SMEs' motivation, pressure, targets and methods for EM and CSR practices. Additionally, the paper investigates how these variables relate to employee number, turnover and geographical locations. The outcomes of the research will add value to SMEs decision-making processes in both strategic and policy levels (e.g. supplier selection) and policymakers' initiatives to make SMEs environment and socially friendly. Although there are studies on EM and CSR practices of SMEs, they mainly focus on impact of EM and CSR practices on business performance, and SMEs' motivation for adopting EM and CSR practices in specific country. Studies that reveal SMEs' motivation, pressure, targets and methods for EM and CSR practices and their relationship with their characteristics (e.g. size, turn over, and geographical location) are scant. This research bridges this gap. Our data originates from 223 carefully selected representative SMEs in the West Midlands, UK (105) and Kolkata, India (118) covering manufacturing and process industries. The relevant data was collected using questionnaires and analysed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) methods. The results reveal that perceptions of SMEs’ motivation, pressure, targets and methods of EM and CSR practices vary considerably with respect to size, turn over and geographical location. The findings are significant to policymakers, client organizations and individual SME for improving EM and CSR practices.