Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) has evidently moved beyond the jurisdictions of academia and begun its ascension to the top of the corporate agenda. CSR is no longer considered a ‗by the way‘ but as a concept to be aligned to a company‘s strategy. The participation of businesses in CSR activities is especially vital in the developing world where the socio-economic needs of the communities are vast. Companies realise they cannot succeed in communities that fail, and CSR is seen as the most direct way to improve communities. With the immense importance of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in any economy, this study explores their limited participation in CSR, which will later be redefined as Communal Business Practices (CBP). An in-depth interview between the author and the manager/owner of a SMME was used to isolate four factors upon which the sub-problems were developed. These factors were Pressure from the Public, Resource Constraints, Scale of Activity, and Visibility. A questionnaire built on these factors was developed and distributed to various SMME managers /owners in Gauteng, Eastern Cape, and Western Cape provinces to explore their opinions on the participation of SMMEs in CBPs. Of the 97% of respondents who believed it was their responsibility to empower their communities, only 43% said they participated in CBPs. It was discovered that SMMEs do not feel pressure from the public to partake in CBPs like their larger counterparts. Instead resource constraints were identified as the most common barrier to SMME participation in CBPs. On the issue of visibility, most SMMEs felt they were not visible enough to benefit from improved legitimacy and reputational effects as larger companies do. On the problem of scale of activity, respondents felt it is proportional to the scale of CBP participation but not a barrier to participation The author concludes the study by putting forward some recommendations to increase the participation of SMMEs in social responsibility activities.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:27637 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Tembo, Theophilus Tawanda |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MBA |
| Format | viii, 132 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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