Responsibility and Sustainability in SMEs

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable development has emerged as an increasingly influential concept for business and entrepreneurship (Hall et al., 2010). Sustainability in these domains is increasingly understood to extend from mere sustainable competitive advantage to also include environmental sustainability and social responsibility—to in effect account for the “triple-bottom line” (Elkington, 1997). However, the role of the triple-bottom line, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and responsible business practices in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), is in need of further study (Tsvetkova et al., 2020). Earlier research has noted that SMEs have distinct challenges in understanding corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Murrillo and Lozano, 2006), and that they differ from multinational companies in how they engage in CSR (Morsing and Perrini, 2009). However, while research has outlined the impact of CSR from the multinational perspective (e.g., Kolk and van Tulder, 2010) we know less about sustainability and CSR in SMEs. There is some recent evidence that sustainability and responsible business practices can be an important competitive advantage for SMEs (Burlea-Schiopoiu and Mihai, 2019; Hammann et al., 2019; Tsvetkova et al., 2020); thus, it is important for research to shed more light on what type of capabilities, resources, and business models underlie the development, manifestation, and outcomes of CSR and sustainability in SMEs. The role of stakeholders, institutions, and culture in driving sustainable and responsible business practices in SMEs are also areas of interest where more research is needed.

This Special Issue invites papers adopting both theoretical and practical approaches to shed light on the role of responsibility and sustainability in SMEs. We welcome papers using different research methods (quantitative, qualitative, mixed), analyzing different types of SMEs (e.g., domestic or international), and exploring the topic in different countries; cross-country comparisons are encouraged in particular given the impact of the institutional and cultural context regarding sustainability.

Dr. Lasse Torkkeli
Prof. Dr. Susanne Durst
Guest Editors

References

1. Burlea-Schiopoiu, A., & Mihai, L. S. (2019). An integrated framework on the sustainability of SMEs. Sustainability, 11(21), 6026.
2. Elkington, J. (1997). Cannibals with forks. The triple bottom line of 21st century.
3. Hall, J. K., Daneke, G. A., & Lenox, M. J. (2010). Sustainable development and entrepreneurship: Past contributions and future directions. Journal of Business Venturing, 25(5), 439-448.
4. Hammann, E. M., Habisch, A., & Pechlaner, H. (2009). Values that create value: socially responsible business practices in SMEs–empirical evidence from German companies. Business Ethics: A European Review, 18(1), 37-51.
5. Kolk, A., & Van Tulder, R. (2010). International business, corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. International Business Review, 19(2), 119-125.
6. Morsing, M., & Perrini, F. (2009). CSR in SMEs: do SMEs matter for the CSR agenda?. Business Ethics: A European Review, 18(1), 1-6.
7. Murillo, D., & Lozano, J. M. (2006). SMEs and CSR: An approach to CSR in their own words. Journal of Business Ethics, 67(3), 227-240.
8. Tsvetkova, D., Bengtsson, E., & Durst, S. (2020). Maintaining Sustainable Practices in SMEs: Insights from Sweden. Sustainability 12(24): 10242. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410242

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• sustainable entrepreneurship
• small- and medium-sized enterprises
• SME internationalization
• corporate social responsibility
• responsible business practices