Characterization and measurement of social responsibility in micro, small and medium enterprises of the Caribbean Region of Colombia

Abstract

Despite the literature on corporate social responsibility of small and medium enterprises has grown in recent years, knowledge on the subject is still fragmented and has not yet achieved a coherent theory of social responsibility for companies of this dimension. In this sense, this thesis sought to contribute to the development of the theory from the perspective of small businesses in the Caribbean Region of Colombia. The thesis is structured in three articles. The first article addresses a review of the literature in order to analyze research trends in the field of corporate social responsibility of small and medium enterprises in the period 1970-2018. The results show greater interest in the subject as of 2002, with greater research production, mainly in developed countries in Europe and North America. It also identifies a predominance of empirical studies and the relative decrease of descriptive works in the study of social responsibility in small and medium enterprises. Parallel to the greater collaborative and multidisciplinary work among authors, a low level of connectivity of the authors is observed at the level of the entire network. Finally, it is identified that social responsibility research in smaller companies is in a state of growth, with theoretical restrictions to advance to a state of maturation of knowledge. The second article evaluates the degree of understanding and execution of social responsibility practices in micro, small and medium-sized companies in Barranquilla, following the theory of Stakeholders. Using an exploratory factor analysis in 779 companies, it was found that the variables with the greatest explanatory influence on socially responsible performance are the employees, the environment and the community. In contrast, corporate management, the value chain and the public/governmental sector conditions the development of social responsibility actions. Additionally, there is a weak perception and lack of will among owners and managers to undertake comprehensive social responsibility programs, as well as little interest in formalizing the social initiatives already carried out. The third article develops a new multidimensional scale to measure the perception of owners and/or managers about corporate social responsibility activities and the effect of this perception on the corporate image of micro, small and medium enterprises in the Caribbean region of Colombia. Using structural equations, in a sample of 3069 companies, the causal relationship between social responsibility and corporate image was measured. The results confirmed the empirical validation of three different dimensions to measure social responsibility and its relationship with the corporate image. In particular, the economic dimension acts as the most influential domain of social responsibility, as opposed to the environmental dimension that is less relevant. In addition, the study found that the positive perception of social responsibility acts as a key mediator for the corporate image. Finally, it is important to emphasize that the main contribution of this thesis is in providing empirical evidence on the knowledge and execution of actions of social responsibility in smaller companies in a developing country. In effect, the results show moderate knowledge and the informal implementation of some social responsibility practices, which suggests the need of advancing in social responsibility training programs led by academia, government entities and business associations.