CSR and Competitiveness European SMEs - KMU Forschung Austria

16 CSR and Competitiveness - European SMEs’ Good Practice - Consolidated European Report
often means working together with local community organisations or institutions such as
schools and hospitals, environmental groups, cultural organisations, relevant leisure
and sports clubs etc., but also with public authorities and non-governmental organisations
(NGOs). This is sometimes also referred to as Corporate Community Investment
(CCI). Nevertheless, also activities for the benefit of the wider society (e.g. developing
countries) are to be included in this field. 10
• Environment: CSR activities in the field of the protection of the environment and
sustainable development focus on an efficient use of resources and the reduction of
waste and pollution by using instruments such as environmental management systems,
ecodesign tools, eco labels or cleaner production techniques and technologies.
These broad categories are, in general, also relevant for CSR activities of SMEs although the
distinct design of individual measures may vary between large and small companies. So, for
example, SMEs’ activities in the field of marketplace will – in contrast to larger enterprises –
hardly consider credit institutes or public authorities as well as competitors. Nevertheless, all of
the above-mentioned categories are covered by the case studies of Good Practice analysed in
this study (also see Appendix 1), supplemented by “comprehensive approaches” dealing with
at least two of the above-mentioned target groups. An overview on the considered target groups
can be given in the following graph:
Graph 2 Overview on the Target Groups of SMEs’ CSR Activities
Market Employees
Environment
Source: Austrian Institute for SME Research
CSR in European SMEs
Comprehensive
approaches
Society
10
Due to this fact, in this study this category is referred to as “society” rather than “community” as in other
publications.