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The research topic currently under consideration is the attitude of Chinese small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) towards corporate social responsibility. Based on this research question, this section explains the rationality for choosing this research topic, identifies several research questions under this research topic, and identifies the key authors who have informed the authors of the research topic. Moreover, the author will discuss to what extent I feel the drafted research questions meets the criteria outlined in Box 2.2.of Saunders et al. (2009). It is understood that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to the notion that a firm’s profit making activities needs to be accountable to the society in which it operates. This does not only mean that a firm’s profit making activities needs to stay within the law, but also that a firm needs to actively consider how much benefits it can generate to the society (Carroll 1999). Over the past century, the concept and meaning of corporate social responsibility has rapidly evolved. Indeed, in the 1950s and 1960s, it is widely believed that the social responsibility of a firm is to maximize shareholders values on the one hand, while obeying the established rules and the laws on the other hand. That is, as argued by Milton Friedman – an Economic Nobel Prize Laureate, “there is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition, without deception and fraud” (Friedman 1962). Since then, the meaning of CSR has enlarged greatly. Nowadays, it is widely believed that a firm does not only have responsibility for its shareholders but also for other key stakeholders including employees, suppliers, and even its competitors and the wider society (Werther and Chandler 2010). In other words, in making profits, a firm nowadays needs to consider also the diverse interests of all the key stakeholders who may be affected by its profit making activity, and such interests may be very diverse and contradicts firms’ profit making motives. The costs and benefits of honouring CSR is a currently a controversial topics in the existing theoretical and empirical literature. The controversy is particularly intense and salient with respect to the role of SMEs in CSR. In particular, one school of thought suggests that taking socially responsibility action and strategies can be very costly for SMEs as SMEs may sacrifice business opportunities for taking part in CSR (Perrini 2006; Moore and Spence 2006). On the other hand, another branch of literature suggests that taking part in CSR can have beneficial outcomes such as accumulation of social capital. Since there is virtually very little studies on the role of CSR in China’s SMEs sector, the research topic is chosen to be Chinese SME owners’ attitude towards CSR. Under this research topic, a number of research questions are identified and they are spelled out as follows:
1) What are Chinese SME owners’ general attitudes towards CSR? Therefore four academic papers which are important for generating this research topics and the research questions. These four articles include 1) Lepoutre and Heene (2006), 2) Murillo and Lozano (2006), 3) Perrini (2006) and 4) Udayasankar (2008). Lepoutre and Heene (2006) investigate the impact of smaller firm size on CSR. It critically analyses recent theoretical and empirical studies on the impact of size on CSR. Therefore, the arguments in this paper are very useful for identifying the theories and empirical evidence regarding the impact of firm size on CSR. Murillo and Lozano (2006) contain case studies about SMEs’ CSR activities. The focus of this study is to understand SMEs’ resistance to CSR activities. The result in the paper shows that it is difficult for SMEs to understand CSR and take part in CSR activities. In Perrini (2006), the author seeks to investigate what CSR theory is best fitted in the context of CSR. The author argues that while the Stakeholder Theory is more applicable in the context of large corporations; for small corporations, social capital theories are more appropriate. Lastly in Udayasankar (2006), the author focuses on examination of different economic motivations of firms with varying combinations of visibility, resource access and operating scale in taking part in CSR. This article provides theoretical and empirical contribution to the debate of the impact of firm size on CSR.
The topic I have chosen is something which I am very fascinated about as I have deep academic interests in researching how businesses can make contribution to the wider society. Currently, there is a large body of literature studying SME’s role in CSR. Therefore, this research topic would allows me to practice how to synthesize different materials from different studies, how to write a critical literature review, how to design a feasible research and how to obtain findings. The project is totally achievable within time and financial resources and it is current when I finish the project. I am considering using focus group study to obtain data. This can be done by inviting some SME owners from a business district of my hometown as my uncle is one of the business owners and I am very acquitted with the owners in the business district. I am confident that the topic fit well the specifications and the standards set by the examining institution of the University. As discussed early, this research topic is underlined by a large amount of theoretical and empirical questions. The research questions are already stated clearly above and the objectives of the research are very apparent. Since there is virtually very little study on Chinese SME’s CSR activities, this study provides fresh insights into the topic. Caroll, A. B. (1999), “Corporate social responsibility: evolution of a definitional construct”, Business society, vl. 38, pp. 268 – 285. Lepoutre, J. and Heene, A. (2006), “Investigating the impact of firm size on small business social responsibility: a critical review”, Journal of business ethics, vl. 67, pp. 257 – 273. Murillo, D. and Lozano, J. M. (2006), “SMEs and CSR: an approach to CSR in their own words”, Journal of business ethics, vol. 67, no. 3, pp. 227 – 240.
Udayasankar, K. (2008), “Corporate social responsibility and firm size”, Journal of business ethics, vol. 83, o. 2,pp. 167 – 175. Werther, W. B. and Chandler, D. (2010), Strategic corporate social responsibility: stakeholders in global environment, New York: Sage. |
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