Abstract
This paper analyses empirical evidence of efforts to enable Spanish micro and small manufacturing companies to boost their labour productivity rates through the development of the main pillars of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies. This study aims to develop new approaches and sensibilities towards work from an ethical, values (virtues) and CSR perspective, showing how internal dimensions of CSR, such those related to relationships with employees and responsibility in processes and product quality, can improve labour performance and labour efficiency, thereby contributing to a better society. The results of a sample of 929 small businesses indicate that the social responsibility policies that most contributed to a short-term increase in labour productivity are those related to internal aspects of the company, in particular its involvement in the quality of processes and products, promotion of innovation and employee care. However, the impact on labour productivity of CSR policies related to external factors, such as relationship with stakeholders and environmental concern, could not be empirically proven in this paper.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
This paper has included these control variables, given that the sample is made up of small companies belonging to the industrial sector.
By definition, the dependent variable (SA) (sales/employee) will have a negative relationship with the variable (VAL) (labour costs/sales) because the numerator of the dependent variable is the denominator of the independent variable. Because labour costs and employees are highly correlated and because production and sales are highly correlated, the same is true for the dependent variable (PE). In order to prove that the statistical result is due to the underlying hypothesized H2 relationship and not the above-mentioned arithmetic variable definition, we tested the model with the Labour Costs variable instead of the VAL variable. The results obtained with the Labour Costs variable were also significant.
Abbreviations
- CFP:
-
Corporate financial performance
- CSP:
-
Corporate social performance
- CSR:
-
Corporate social responsibility
- ESEE:
-
Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales (Survey on Business Strategy)
- GDP:
-
Gross domestic product
- GVA:
-
Gross value added
- MBA:
-
Master in Business Administration
- R&D:
-
Research & Development
- SEPI:
-
Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (National holding for share portfolio in industry)
- SMEs:
-
Small- and medium-sized enterprises
- UK:
-
United Kingdom
References
Albinger, H. S., & Freeman, S. J. (2000). Corporate social performance and attractiveness as an employer to different job seeking populations. Journal of Business Ethics, 28(3), 243–253.
Allouche, J., & Laroche, P. (2005). A meta-analytical investigation of the relationship between corporate social and financial performance. Revue De Gestion Des Ressources Humaines, 57, 18–40.
Axelrod, R. (1984). The evolution of cooperation. New York: Basic Books.
Axelrod, R., & Cohen, M. D. (1999). Harnessing complexity. New York: Free Press.
Barney, J. (1991). Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99–120.
Barney, J. B., & Hansen, M. H. (1994). Trustworthiness as a source of competitive advantage. Strategic Management Journal, 15, 175–190.
Baumont, C. (1997). Croissance endogène et espace. In F. Céliméne & C. Lacour (Eds.), L’intégration régionale des espace (pp. 33–61). Paris: Economica.
Becchetti, L., & Trovato, G. (2011). Corporate social responsibility and firm efficiency: A latent class stochastic frontier analysis. Journal of Productivity Analysis, 36(3), 231.
Benito-Hernández, S., Platero Jaime, M., & Rodríguez Duarte, A. (2012). Determinants of innovation in Spanish microenterprises: The importance of internal factors. Universia Business Review, 1, 104–121.
Bowen, H. R. (1953). Social responsibilities of the businessman. New York: Harper & Row.
Branco, M. C., & Rodriguez, L. L. (2006). Corporate social responsibility and resource-based perspectives. Journal of Business Ethics, 69(2), 111–132.
Burke, L., & Logsdon, J. M. (1996). How corporate social responsibility pays off. Longe Range Planning, 29(4), 495–502.
Callejón, M. (2002). Implicaciones de las nuevas teorías del crecimiento y la localización en las políticas regionales y locales. Capítulo del libro electrónico: La Política Económica en un Mundo de Incertidumbre. V Jornadas de Política Económica. General Media. S.L. Bilbao.
Carroll, A. B. (1979). A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate performance. Academy of Management Journal, 4(4), 497–505.
Chapple, W., Morrison Paul, C. J., & Harris, R. (2005). Manufacturing and corporate environmental responsibility: Cost implications of voluntary waste minimisation. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 16, 347–373.
Chatterji, M., & Tilley, C. J. (2002). Sickness, absenteeism, ‘presenteeism’ and sick pay. Oxford Economic Papers, 54(4), 669–687.
Ciccone, A. (2002). Agglomeration effects in Europe. European Economic Review, 46, 213–227.
Clarkson, M. B. E. (1995). A stakeholder framework for analyzing and evaluating corporate social performance. Academy of Management Review, 20(1), 92–117.
Commission of the European Communities. (2001). Green paper. Promoting a European framework for corporate social responsibility, COM 2001 (pp. 366–end), 18.07.2001. Brussels: Commission of the European Community. Accessed March 10, 2010, from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2001:0366:FIN:ES:PDF.
de Bakker, F. G., Groenewegen, P., & Den Hond, F. (2005). A bibliometric analysis of 30 years of research and theory on corporate social responsibility and corporate social performance. Business & Society, 44(3), 283–317.
De Schutter, O. (2008). Corporate social responsibility European style. European Law Journal, 14, 203–236.
Del Brío, J. A., & Junquera, B. (2003). A review of the literature on environmental innovation management in SMEs: Implications for public policies. Technovation, 23(12), 939–948.
Dowell, G., Stuart, H., & Bernard, Y. (2000) Do Corporate Environmental Standards Create or Destroy Market Value? Management Science, 46, 1059–1074.
Epstein, M. J., & Roy, M. J. (2001). Sustainability in action: Identifying and measuring the key performance drivers. Long Range Planning, 34(5), 585–604.
European Commission. (2003). Recommendation 2003/361/CE. Accessed May 19, 2012, from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2003:124:0036:0041:es:PDF.
European Commission. (2006). Implementing the partnership for growth and jobs: Making Europe a pole of excellence on corporate social responsibility. COM 136. Brussels: European Commission.
European Commission. (2008). European competitiveness report. Accessed May 12, 2012, from http://ec.europa.eu/ENTERPRISE/newsroom/cf/_getdocument.cfm?doc_id=4058.
European Commission. (2010). European competitiveness report (pp. 22–23). Accessed May 10, 2012, from http://bookshop.europa.eu/en/european-competitiveness-report-2010-pbNBAK10001/.
European Commission, DG-ENTERPRISE. (2011). Annual report on EU small and medium sized enterprises 2010/2011. Accessed March 1, 2012, from http://ec.europa.eu/ENTERPRISE/policies/sme/facts-figures-analysis/performance-review/pdf/2010_2011/are_the_eus_smes_recovering.pdf.
Fombrun, C. (1996). Reputation: Realizing value from the corporate image. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Freeman, R. E. (1984). Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Boston/London: Pitman/Ballinger.
Frooman, J. (1997). Socially irresponsible and illegal behaviour and shareholder wealth. Business and Society, 36, 221–249.
García Olaverry, M. C., & Huertas, E. (2012). Influencia sindical en la empresa industrial española. Revista Internacional del trabajo, 130(3–4), 303–322.
Grayson, D. (2004). How CSR contribute to the competitiveness of Europe in a more sustainable world. In The World Bank Institute and the CSR Resource Centre (Netherlands) (pp. 1–5).
Grayson, D., & Hodges, A. (2004). Corporate social opportunity! Seven steps to make corporate social responsibility work for your business. Sheffield: Greenleaf Publishing.
Greening, D. W., & Turban, D. B. (2000). Corporate social performance as a competitive advantage in attracting a quality workforce. Business and Society, 39(3), 254–280.
Hamel, G., & Prahalad, C. K. (1989). Strategic intent. Harvard Business Review, 3, 63–76.
Hansen, U. (2004). Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung als Business Case: Ansätze, Defizite und Perspektiven der deutschsprachigen Betriebswirtschaftslehre. In U. Schneider & P. Steiner (Eds.), Betriebswirtschaftslehre un Gesellschaftliche Verantwortung: Mit Corporate Social Responsibility zu mehr Engagement (1st ed., pp. 59–83). Wiesbaden, Germany: Gabler Verlag.
Heal, G. (2005). Corporate social responsibility: An economic and financial framework. The Geneva papers on risk and insurance. Issues and Practice, 30(3), 387–409.
Hopkins, M. (2003). The planetary bargain. London: Earthscan.
Jaccard, J., & Turrisi, R. (2003). Interaction effects in multiple regression (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Jenkins, H. (2006). Small business champions for corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics, 67, 241–256.
Jones, C. (2003). As if business ethics were possible: ‘Within such limits’…. Organization, 10(2), 223–248.
Jones, T. M. (1995). Instrumental Stakeholder Theory: A synthesis of ethics and economics. The Academy of Management Review, 20(2), 404–437.
Kay, J. (1993). Foundations of corporate success. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kong, N., Salzmann, O., Steger, U., & Ionescu-Somers, A. (2002). Moving business/industry towards sustainable consumption: The role of NGOs. European Management Journal, 20(2), 109–127.
Kramer, M., Pfizer, M., & Lee, P. (2007). Competitive social responsibility: Uncovering the economic rationale for corporate social responsibility among Danish small- and medium-sized enterprises. Project Report, Copenhagen.
Lantos, G. P. (2001). The boundaries of strategic corporate social responsibility. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 18(2), 595–630.
Lee, M. D. P. (2008). A review of the theories of corporate social responsibility: Its evolutionary path and the road ahead. International Journal of Management Reviews, 10, 53–73.
Longo, M., Mura, M., & Bonoli, A. (2005). Corporate social responsibility and corporate performance: The case of Italian SMEs. Corporate Governance, 5, 28–42.
Lowell, B. L. (2007). The new metrics of corporate performance: Profit per employee. The McKinsey Quarterly, 1, 56–65.
Maignan, I., Ferrell, O. C. and Hult, T. G. (1999). Corporate citizenship: Cultural antecedents and business benefits. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 27, 4, 455-469.
Malindi, M. (2009). The impact of the economic downturn on productivity growth. Economic & Labour Market Review, 3(6), 18–25.
Margolis, J. D., Elfenbein, H. A., & Walsh, J. P. (2007, August). Does it pay to be good? A meta-analysis and redirection of research on the relationship between corporate social and financial performance. Presentation at the Academy of Management Meetings, Philadelphia, PA.
Marín Rives, L., & Rubio Bañón, A. (2008). ¿Moda o factor competitivo? Un estudio empírico de responsabilidad social corporativa en la PYME. Tribuna de Economía, ICE, 842, 177–193.
Maté Sánchez-Val, M. L., et al. (2009). La influencia de los efectos espaciales en el crecimiento de la productividad de la PYME. Estudios de Economía Aplicada, 27(1), 1–24.
McWilliams, A., & Siegel, D. (2000). Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: Correlation or misspecification? Strategic Management Journal, 21, 603–609.
Mendibil, K., Hernandez, J., Espinach, X., Garriga, E., & Macgregor, S. (2007). How can CSR practices lead to successful innovation in SMEs? Publication from the RESPONSE Project, Strathclyde, 141.
Miles, M. P., & Covin, J. G. (2000). Environmental marketing: A source of reputational, competitive, and financial advantage. Journal of Business Ethics, 23, 299–311.
Miller, M. L., et al. (2008). Efectos del ausentismo en la productividad de los maestros. Revista Internacional del trabajo, 127(1), 79–98.
Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism of Spain. (2012). Retrato de la PYME (pp. 2–3). Accessed February 8, 2012, from http://estadisticas.ipyme.org/InformesEstadisticos/RetratoPYME2012.pdf.
Mintzberg, H. (1983). The case for corporate social responsibility. The Journal of Business Strategy, 4(2), 3–15.
Mintzberg, H. (1993). The rise and fall of strategic planning. New York: Free Press.
Mohr, L., Webb, D., & Katherine, H. (2001). Do consumers expect companies to be socially responsible? The impact of corporate social responsibility on buying behavior. The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 35(1), 45–67.
Moore, G. (2003). Hives and horseshoes, Mintzberg and Mclntyre: What future for corporate social responsibility? Business Ethics: A European Review, 12, 4–55.
Murths, T. P., & Lenway, S. A. (1998). Country capabilities and the strategic state: How national political institutions affect MNC strategies. Strategic Management Journal, 15(5), 113–119.
Orlitzky, M. (2005). Social responsibility and financial performance: Trade-off or virtuous circle. University of Auckland Business Review, 7, 37–43.
Orlitzky, M., & Benjamin, J. D. (2001). Corporate social performance and firm risk: A meta-analytic review. Business and Society, 40(4), 369–396.
Orlitzky, M., Schmidt, F. L., & Rynes, S. L. (2003). Corporate social and financial performance: A meta-analysis. Organization Studies, 24(3), 403–441.
Orsato, R (2006). Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does it Pay to be Green? California Management Review, 48(2), 127–143.
Podolny, J. M. (1993). A status-based model of market competition. American Journal of Sociology, 98, 829–872.
Porter, M. E. (1985). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance. New York: Free Press.
Porter, M. E. (2003). CSR—A religion with too many priests? European Business Forum 15.
Porter, M. E., & Kramer, M. R. (2002). The competitive advantage of corporate philanthropy. Harvard Business Review, 80(12), 56–69.
Porter, M.E. & van der Linde, C. (1995).Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 9(4), 97–118.
Porter, M. E., & van der Linde, C. (1998). Green and competitive. In M. E. Porter (Ed.), On competition (pp. 351–375). MA Boston: Harvard Business Press.
Rice, P., & Venables, A. J. (2004). Spatial determinants of productivity, analysis for the regions of Great Britain. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 36(6), 727–752.
Roberts, P. W., & Dowling, G. R. (2002). Corporate reputation and sustained superior financial performance. Strategic Management Journal, 23(12), 1077–1093.
Rondinelli, D. A., & London, T. (2002). Stakeholder and corporate responsibilities in cross-sectoral environmental collaborations: Building value, legitimacy and trust. In J. Andriof, S. Waddock, B. Husted, & S. Sutherland Rahman (Eds.), Unfolding stakeholder thinking: Theory responsibility and engagement (pp. 201–215). Sheffield: Greenleaf.
Russo, M. V., & Fouts, P. A. (1997). A resource based perspective on corporate environmental performance and profitability. Academy of Management Journal, 40, 534–559.
Sauian, M. S. (2002). Labour productivity: An important business strategy in manufacturing. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 13(6), 435.
Schaltegger, S., & Burritt, R. (2005). Corporate sustainability. In H. Folmer & T. Tietenberg (Eds.), The international yearbook of environmental and resource economics 2005/2006: A survey of current issues (pp. 185–222). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Schnietz, K. E., & Epstein, M. J. (2005). Exploring the financial value of reputation for corporate responsibility during a crisis. Corporate Reputation Review, 7(4), 327–345.
Schreck, P. (2011). Reviewing the business case for corporate social responsibility: New evidence and analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 103, 167–188.
Schwaiger, M. (2004). Component and parameter of corporate reputation: An empirical study. Schmalenbach Business Review, 56, 46–71.
Sen, S., & Bhattacharya, C. B. (2001). Does doing good always lead to doing better? Consumer reactions to corporate social responsibility. Journal of Marketing Research, 38(2), 225–243.
Spence, L. J. (1999). Does size matter? The state of the art in small business ethics. Business Ethics: A European Review, 8(3), 163–174.
Spence, L. J., Jeurissen, R., & Rutherfoord, R. (2000). Small business and the environment in the UK and the Netherlands: Toward stakeholder cooperation. Business Ethics Quarterly, 10(4), 945–965.
Spence, L. J., & Lozano, J. F. (2000). Communicating about ethics with small firms: Experiences from the U.K. and Spain. Journal of Business Ethics, 27(1), 43–53.
Spence, L. J., & Rutherfoord, R. (2001). Social responsibility, profit, maximization and the small firm owner-manager. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, 8(2), 126–139.
Spence, L. J., & Rutherfoord, R. (2003). Small business and empirical perspectives in business ethics: Editorial. Journal of Business Ethics, 47(1), 1–5.
Spence, L. J., & Schmidpeter, R. (2003). SMEs, social capital and the common good. Journal of Business Ethics, 45(1–2), 93–108.
Spence, L. J., Schmidpeter, R., & Habisch, A. (2003). Assessing Social Capital: Small and medium sized enterprises in Germany and the UK. Journal of Business Ethics, 47(1), 17–29.
Stuebs, M. T., & Sun, L. (2009). Corporate reputation and technical efficiency: Evidence from the chemical and business services industries. Journal of Applied Business Research, 25(5), 21–29.
Stuebs, M. T., & Sun, L. (2010). Business reputation and labour efficiency, productivity, and cost. Journal of Business Ethics, 96, 265–283.
Sullivan, A., & Sheffrin, S. M. (2003). Economics: Principles in action. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Taymaz, E. (2002). Are small firms really less productive? An analysis of productivity differentials and firms dynamics. Small Business Economics, 25, 429–445.
Thompson, J. K., & Smith, H. L. (1991). Social responsibility and small business: Suggestions for research. Journal of Small Business Management, 29(January), 30–44.
Tilley, F. (2000). Small firm environmental ethics: How deep do they go? Business Ethics: A European Review, 9(1), 31–41.
Tödtling, F., & Kaufmann, A. (2001). The role of the region for innovation activities of SMEs. European Urban and Regional Studies, 8(3), 203–215.
Toyne, P. (2003, June 15–18). Corporate social responsibility—Good business practice and a source of competitive edge for SMEs? Paper presented at the 48th World conference international council for small business (ICSB): Advancing entrepreneurship and small business, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Turban, D. B., & Greening, D. W. (1997). Corporate social performance and organizational attractiveness to prospective employees. Academy of Management Journal, 40(3), 658–672.
van Luijk, H. J. L. (1999). Business ethics in Europe: A tale of two efforts. In R. E. Frederick (Ed.), A companion to business ethics (pp. 353–365). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
van Luijk, H. J. L. (2005). Ética empresarial: ¿Hasta dónde hemos llegado? Una perspectiva europea. ICADE Revista cuatrimestral de las Facultades de Derecho y Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales de la Universidad Pontificia Comillas de Madrid, 64, 11–32.
Vicente Molina, A., et al. (2004). Compatibilidad entre responsabilidad social corporativa y competitividad: estado de la cuestión en el ámbito internacional (pp. 99–100). Basque: Instituto de Economía Aplicada a la empresa, País Vasco University.
Viladecans, E., & Costa, M. (1999). Concentración geográfica de la industria e integración económica de España. Economía Industrial, 329, 19–28.
Vilanova, M., Lozano, J., & Arenas, D. (2009). Exploring the nature of the relationship between CSR and competitiveness. Journal of Business Ethics, 87, 57–69.
Vyakarnam, S., Bailey, A., Myers, A., & Burnett, D. (1997). Towards an understanding of ethical behaviour in small firms. Journal of Business Ethics, 16(15), 1625–1636.
Waddock, S. A., & Graves, S. B. (1997). The corporate social performance-financial performance link. Strategic Management Journal, 18(4), 303–319.
Wartick, S. L., & Cochran, P. L. (1985). The evolution of the corporate social performance model. Academy of Management Review, 10, 758–769.
Weber, M. (2008). The business case for corporate social responsibility: A company-level measurement approach for CSR. European Management Journal, 26, 247.
Welford, R. (2003). Beyond systems: A vision for corporate environmental management for the future. International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2, 162–173.
Williamson, D., et al. (2006). Drivers of environmental behaviour in manufacturing SMEs and the implications for CSR. Journal of Business Ethics, 67(3), 317–330.
Wood, D. J. (1991). Corporate social performance revisited. Academy of Management Review, 16, 691–718.
Wood, D. J. (2010). Measuring corporate social performance: A review. International Journal of Management Reviews, 12, 50–84.
Woodward, D., Edwards, P., & Birkin, F. (2001). Some evidence on executives’ views of corporate social responsibility. British Accounting Review, 33, 357–397.
Wu, M. (2006). Corporate social performance, corporate financial performance, and firm size: A meta-analysis. Journal of American Academy of Business, 8(1), 163–171.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sánchez, P.E., Benito-Hernández, S. CSR Policies: Effects on Labour Productivity in Spanish Micro and Small Manufacturing Companies. J Bus Ethics 128, 705–724 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1982-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1982-x