Corporate Social and Regional Responsibility - The View of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

The objective of this research was to understand and describe what corpo-rate social and regional responsibility is in SMEs and define the meaning of these concepts to the community and region. Corporate social respon-sibility (CSR) creates a basis for regional responsibility. Regional respon-sibility is a new concept and this research examines it from SMEs’ view-point. This is a theoretical research and the aim is to create a theoretical framework of SMEs’ corporate social and regional responsibility. This framework supports the future research on the subject. The research results show that CSR of SMEs is practical, informal and dependent on the scarce resources of SMEs. CSR is a complex and deep concept and SMEs have their own way of interpreting it. It can be stated that CSR-practises in SMEs are closely connected to employment, envi-ronment, community and supply chain. The challenge is to find motivation to socially and regionally responsible behaviour in SMEs. Benefiting from responsible behaviour and the attitude of SME’s owner-manager are the key reasons for SMEs to involve in CSR and regional responsibility. The benefits of this involvement are for example improved image, reputation and market position. CSR can also be used in SMEs as risk management tool and in cost reduction. This study indicates also that creation of strate-gic partnerships, local government participation, a proper legal system and financial support are the basic issues which support CSR of SMEs. This research showed that regional responsibility of SMEs includes active participation in regional strategy processes, L&RED initiatives and regional philanthropy. For SMEs regional responsibility means good relationships with the community and other related stakeholders, involvement in L&RED initiatives and acting responsibly towards the operating environment. In SMEs’ case this means that they need to understand the benefits of this kind of involvement in order to take action and participate. As regional responsibility includes the relationships between firm and the community, it can be stated that regional responsibility extends CSR’s view of stakeholders and emphasises both, the regional stakeholders and public-private partnerships. Community engagement and responsible be-haviour towards community can be seen as a part of SMEs’ social and regional responsibility. This study indicates that social and regional re-sponsibility of SMEs have a significant influence on the community and region where they are located. Better local and regional relationships with regional and community actors are the positive impacts of social and re-gional responsibility of SMEs. Socially and regionally responsible behav-iour creates a more positive environment and deepens the involvement of SMEs to community and L&RED initiatives.

Strategic management of value networks: how to create value in cross-sector collaboration and partnerships

Cross-sector collaboration and partnerships have become an emerging and desired strategy in addressing huge social and environmental challenges. Despite its popularity, cross-sector collaboration management has proven to be very challenging. Even though cross-sector collaboration and partnership management have been widely studied and discussed in recent years, their effectiveness as well as their ability to create value with respect to the problems they address has remained very challenging. There is little or no evidence of their ability to create value. Regarding all these challenges, this study aims to explore how to manage cross-sector collaborations and partnerships to be able to improve their effectiveness and to create more value for all partners involved in collaboration as well as for customers. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part comprises an overview of relevant literature (including strategic management, value networks and value creation theories), followed by presenting the results of the whole thesis and the contribution made by the study. The second part consists of six research publications, including both quantitative and qualitative studies. The chosen research strategy is triangulation, as the study includes four types of triangulation: (1) theoretical triangulation, (2) methodological triangulation, (3) data triangulation and (4) researcher triangulation. Two publications represent conceptual development, which are based on secondary data research. One publication is a quantitative study, carried out through a survey. The other three publications represent qualitative studies, based on case studies, where data was collected through interviews and workshops, with participation of managers from all three sectors: public, private and the third (nonprofit). The study consolidates the field of “strategic management of value networks,” which is proposed to be applied in the context of cross-sector collaboration and partnerships, with the aim of increasing their effectiveness and the process of value creation. Furthermore, the study proposes a first definition for the strategic management of value networks. The study also proposes and develops two strategy tools that are recommended to be used for the strategic management of value networks in cross-sector collaboration and partnerships. Taking a step forward, the study implements the strategy tools in practice, aiming to show and to demonstrate how new value can be created by using the developed strategy tools for the strategic management of value networks. This study makes four main contributions. (1) First, it brings a theoretical contribution by providing new insights and consolidating the field of strategic management of value networks, also proposing a first definition for the strategic management of value networks. (2) Second, the study makes a methodical contribution by proposing and developing two strategy tools for value networks of cross-sector collaboration: (a) value network mapping, a method that allows us to assess the current and the potential value network and (b) the Value Network Scorecard, a method of performance measurement and performance prediction in cross-sector collaboration. (3) Third, the study has managerial implications, offering new solutions and empirical evidence on how to increase the effectiveness of cross-sector collaboration and also allow managers to understand how new value can be created in cross-sector partnerships and how to get the full potential of collaboration. (4) And fourth, the study also has practical implications, allowing managers to understand how to use in practice the strategy tools developed in this study, providing discussions on the limitations regarding the proposed tools as well as general limitations involved in the study.