CSR and Competitiveness European SMEs - KMU Forschung Austria

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II CSR and Competitiveness - European SMEs’ Good Practice - Consolidated European Report List of Graphs Graph 1 Overview on the European Countries Covered in the Study.................................... 7 Graph 2 Overview on the Target Groups of SMEs’ CSR Activities ...................................... 16 Graph 3 Overview on (Semi-)Public Key Players and Their Strategies in the Field of CSR in the Analysed European Countries................................................. 20 Graph 4 Favouring and Hindering Factors in SMEs’ Decision Making Process Concerning CSR..................................................................................................... 33 Graph 5 Schematic Illustration of the Effects of CSR Activities on SMEs’ Competitiveness ..................................................................................................... 50 List of Tables Table 1 Overview on analysed case studies ......................................................................... 8 Table 2 Percentage of SMEs Involved in External Social Activities, by Enterprise Size and Analysed Country .............................................................. 34 Table 3 SMEs’ Strategic Approach to External Social Activities by Analysed Country............................................................................................... 36 Table 4 SMEs’ Involvement in External Social Activities, by Type of Social Activity and Analysed Country 1 .................................................. 39 List of Boxes Box 1 Definition of „Corporate Social Responsibility“ of the European Union .................. 13 Box 2 Definition of „Corporate Social Responsibility“ used in this Study.......................... 14 Box 3 Selected CSR Initiatives at International Level....................................................... 17 Box 4 Examples for Workforce-oriented CSR Activities of European SMEs.................... 37 Box 5 Examples for Society-oriented CSR Activities of European SMEs at Community Level ................................................................................................ 40 Box 6 Examples for Society-oriented CSR Activities of European SMEs at International Level............................................................................................... 41 Box 7 Examples for Customer-oriented CSR Activities of European SMEs..................... 41 Box 8 Examples for CSR Activities of European SMEs in the Field of Local Business Networks.................................................................................... 42 Box 9 Examples for Environment-oriented CSR Activities of European SMEs ................ 43 Box 10 Examples for Comprehensive CSR Activities of European SMEs ......................... 44 Box 11 Examples for the impact of CSR on Productivity.................................................... 46 Box 12 Examples for the impact of CSR on the Enterprises’ Publicity............................... 47 Box 13 Examples for the impact of CSR on Networking .................................................... 47 Box 14 Examples for the impact of CSR on the Market Penetration.................................. 48 Box 15 Examples for the impact of CSR on SMEs’ Labour Market Position...................... 49 Box 16 Examples for the impact of CSR on Regional Development.................................. 49
CSR and Competitiveness - European SMEs’ Good Practice - Consolidated European Report 1 1 Executive Summary Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), generally understood as voluntary initiatives going beyond legislative requirements and contractual obligations (“responsible entrepreneurship“), is continuously gaining importance with regard to both, public and private discussion as well as its practical application in European enterprises. In order to further foster the application of CSR among European SMEs the European Commission in 2005 launched a call on Mainstreaming Corporate Social Responsibility. The study on hand is one of the projects supported by this grant programme. By analysing seven European countries (i.e. Austria, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania and Spain), the effort was taken to provide insight into the relationship between SMEs’ CSR activities and their economic competitiveness. Next to an exhaustive desk research on the general situation of CSR within these countries, the most relevant (public) actors engaged in this issue, the level of deployment of CSR among national SMEs as well as the characteristics of these activities, a portfolio of 35 Good Practice case studies has been identified and described in-depth in order to prove that CSR must not only be understood as investment but also results in an economically beneficial outcome for the businesses. When investigating on the actual understanding of the concept in the individual countries it becomes obvious, however, that the definition differs across Europe, ranging from a comparatively narrow understanding focusing on only selected fields normally subsumed under “CSR” to a broad approach taking into account the long-term perspective of achieving a general sustainability while considering the needs and requirements of the employees, other stakeholders, the community and the society. Both, the understanding as well as the spread of CSR in the individual Member States may be considered to be substantially influenced by the time horizon since when the concept has been subject of public and policy debate. At individual Member State level, a multitude of different (semi-)public actors is engaged in the field of CSR. The most important ones are the national (and partly also regional) governments, social partners, specific CSR bodies and education institutes. These actors are mainly active in the field of awareness raising, information provision and support of business entities with regard to the operational implementation of CSR. Furthermore, they determine the legal/regulatory framework which considerably influences companies’ possibilities for carrying out additional, voluntary initiatives. In general, European SMEs are rather aware on their social responsibility and also engaged to a high extent in CSR activities – even if they are not referred to as such in the majority of cases. CSR initiatives are often focused on employees, but may also be targeted at external stakeholders, i.e. the market (customers, suppliers, business partners), the society/community or (more rarely) at the environment. Furthermore, comprehensive approaches integrating at least two of the above-mentioned different fields seem to be widespread among those European SMEs active in CSR.
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Appendix 1 - Overview on the Analys
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