Can SMEs “do” CSR? A practitioner’s view of the ways small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises are able to manage reputation through corporate social responsibility

Abstract

If major corporations struggle to define and place a value on reputation and reputational risk, what hope is there for small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs)? It is assumed here that large corporations have greater resources available to them to do this and stronger imperatives to do so in the form of a greater number of external stakeholders, most notably shareholders and analysts. Is a structured approach to managing corporate reputation the exclusive preserve of companies with communications departments? Is corporate social responsibility (CSR), in as much as it is a voluntary activity, “good value” for SMEs and is cost versus benefit the only way to evaluate CSR? This paper reviews a spectrum of views on reputation and CSR and argues that searching for a definitive, value‐for‐money‐based formula for reputation management and CSR is at odds with stakeholder expectations, and that much evidence exists to suggest that truly effective CSR is the result more of pragmatism than theory or corporate strategy and in some ways SMEs are better placed to take advantage of CSR programmes.