How Do SMEs Attitudes toward Stakeholders Shape Their Sustainability Assessment? An Empirical Study from the V4 Countries

This study examines how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) assess the importance of sustainability through their attitudes toward key stakeholder groups in the Visegrad Four (V4) countries. Drawing on stakeholder and institutional perspectives, it examines whether community engagement, standardized management of supplier and customer relationships, and customer relations shape positive sustainability evaluations. Using survey data from 1,549 SMEs collected in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, the analysis applies correlation and linear regression techniques at the country level. The findings show that stakeholder-related attitudes significantly influence sustainability assessments, although their relative importance varies between national contexts. Standardized management of supplier and customer relationships emerges as a consistent driver in all countries, while community engagement and customer relations exert differentiated effects. These results indicate that SME sustainability perceptions are grounded in relational practices rather than abstract compliance considerations. This study further highlights the role of stakeholder embeddedness under shared but heterogeneous institutional environments and offers practical insights for fostering sustainability-oriented mindsets among SMEs in Central Europe.