Lecture 3

What is CSR?

Voluntarily addressing social and environmental concerns in operations and stakeholder interactions.

Why can CSR matter to SMEs?

Owners may value more than profit and have close local stakeholder ties.

What is the MOA?

Motivation, opportunity and ability shape CSR behaviour.

Nicoara et al.: do firm characteristics matter?

Size and age were not key drivers. Stakeholder pressure mattered; manufacturing was positively related to CSR engagement and social performance.

Nicoara et al.: do manager characteristics matter?

Other-regarding values and CSR competence were positively related to CSR engagement; self-regarding values were not.

What does employee supportiveness do?

It moderates how strongly managers’ values and competence relate to CSR engagement. H7c was unsupported.

Moderator versus mediator?

A moderator changes a relationship’s strength. A mediator explains how an effect occurs.

Why is HRM important to SMEs?

Employee quality is crucial, especially in services. Attractive jobs and personal contact help SMEs compete for staff.

When is HRM even more important?

In knowledge-intensive work or a tight labour market.

Bax and Brand: main HRM task?

Balance the quantity and quality of labour demand and supply.

How does SME HRM often differ?

Less formal planning, induction, appraisal and training, but often closer communication. Informal is not necessarily worse.

Viitale et al. (2020): finding and limit?

They mapped 37 Finnish managers’ HRM beliefs but did not prove that richer beliefs improve performance.

Bocconcelli et al.: three marketing facets?

Market orientation, marketing processes and operational marketing.

How can SMEs market with few resources?

Through customer closeness, networks, flexible decisions, entrepreneurial marketing orientation and ICT.