Linking Business with Civil Society: The Bridging Role of CSR

The role and the importance of business within our societies are topics of great interest for both academics and practitioners, but the current understanding of this topic is far from being clear or undisputable at the moment. The classic principle that businesses act legally and ethically is a real blessing for the society, denoting that businesses should not get involved in achieving major social or environmental objectives, is at present questionable. For years now, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a key element in shaping the relation between businesses, public policy, and civil society. In this paper, we are presenting the results of a survey-based research conducted among 109 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located in the northwestern region of Romania. The paper addresses the role of CSR as a mediator between businesses and civil society and analyzes the attitude of SMEs’ managers toward CSR activities, as well as the role of businesses in communities and the relation between the intention to conduct CSR activities and their actual implementation. The results show a clear interest of SMEs in CSR and a strong link between the understandings that managers have regarding the role of businesses in society and their social responsibility actions. The most important factor explaining the level of involvement in social activities is related to the attitude of firms’ managers regarding what extent a company should set social welfare as a priority. The implications of these findings show that businesses are socially responsible and civically involved as long as their managers perceive CSR to be essential among for competing individual responsibilities, in other words, they manifest active citizenship (also) in the economic area.