Difference in stakeholder engagement approach of small & medium enterprises and large companies and its performance implications

Using the explicit and implicit Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) framework, this study investigates how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and large companies differ in their approach to CSR and what association these differing approaches to CSR have with a company's financial and social performances. We develop and validate a stakeholder engagement approach (SEA) scale and then present the results of data collected from 211 SMEs and 179 large companies. The results indicate that while large companies rely more on explicitly articulated and formally enacted approaches to CSR, SMEs integrate social responsibility into their company activities in informal and implicit ways. The results also show that the explicit approach has a positive association with financial performance measures, while the implicit approach has a positive association with social performance. The findings of this study provide a more nuanced and theoretically grounded understanding of differences in the CSR practices of SMEs and large companies.