The impact of buyer pressure on SMEs to demonstrate CSR activities: evidence of the ceiling effect
The impact of buyer pressure on SMEs to demonstrate CSR activities: evidence of the ceiling effect
Those promoting the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda to SMEs are interested in the potential of buyer pressure as an incentive, as this appears to have the advantage of providing extra motivation for suppliers to demonstrate CSR without the need for legal regulation.
This paper presents the results from an empirical study into the attitudes of 103 SME owner/managers in response to the inclusion of CSR criteria in the procurement strategies of large organisations. Most said that the inclusion of such criteria would increase their motivation to engage in CSR (82 % for environmental criteria and 55% for social criteria). However a minority thought that inclusion of such criteria would be counter-productive (12%) and set lower standards than they would set for themselves (33%), indicating a possible ceiling effect; whereby the standards set are perceived by the SMEs as the upper limit of what they need to achieve.
Baden, D.
daad83b9-c537-4d3c-bab6-548b841f23b5
Harwood, I.A.
8f945742-3e33-445e-9665-0f613f35fc5b
Woodward, D.
2033180f-0bcd-45e7-91dd-92b673e2ae72
April 2008
Baden, D.
daad83b9-c537-4d3c-bab6-548b841f23b5
Harwood, I.A.
8f945742-3e33-445e-9665-0f613f35fc5b
Woodward, D.
2033180f-0bcd-45e7-91dd-92b673e2ae72
Baden, D., Harwood, I.A. and Woodward, D.
(2008)
The impact of buyer pressure on SMEs to demonstrate CSR activities: evidence of the ceiling effect.
European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) Conference 2008, Cambridge, UK.
01 - 02 Apr 2008.
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
Those promoting the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda to SMEs are interested in the potential of buyer pressure as an incentive, as this appears to have the advantage of providing extra motivation for suppliers to demonstrate CSR without the need for legal regulation.
This paper presents the results from an empirical study into the attitudes of 103 SME owner/managers in response to the inclusion of CSR criteria in the procurement strategies of large organisations. Most said that the inclusion of such criteria would increase their motivation to engage in CSR (82 % for environmental criteria and 55% for social criteria). However a minority thought that inclusion of such criteria would be counter-productive (12%) and set lower standards than they would set for themselves (33%), indicating a possible ceiling effect; whereby the standards set are perceived by the SMEs as the upper limit of what they need to achieve.
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Published date: April 2008
Venue - Dates:
European Business Ethics Network (EBEN) Conference 2008, Cambridge, UK, 2008-04-01 - 2008-04-02
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Local EPrints ID: 51678
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/51678
PURE UUID: 6c60e1e3-ac82-44e0-9ce7-01c8165f1409
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Date deposited: 05 Aug 2008
Last modified: 21 May 2023 01:35
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Contributors
Author:
I.A. Harwood
Author:
D. Woodward
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