Implementation of CSR Practices by SME Owner Managers: A Cognitive Mapping Approach

This exploratory study aims to analyse the decision-making processes of small and mediumsized enterprises (SME) owner-managers regarding their corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement. The research question is as follows: What encourages SME owner-managers to decide in favour of CSR commitment? Using cognitive mapping as a tool to analyse owner-managers' cognitive patterns, this research demonstrates that owner-managers are motivated by a diverse set of reasons to integrate CSR into their business. For some managers, commitment to CSR practices is a strategic initiative—to achieve the company's objectives and improve its image—while for others, CSR integration is a personal conviction rather than a strategic initiative. The main contribution of this study is the proposition of a cognitive approach using mental maps to analyse the cognitive patterns of SME owner-managers regarding their decisions about CSR commitment. From a theoretical viewpoint, analysing the cognitive schemas demonstrates the importance of cognition in CSR implementation by SMEs and highlights how essential it is to consider the idiosyncratic vision of an owner-manager to understand their decision-making. At the managerial level, mobilizing cognitive maps in the CSR approach could enable owner-managers to identify key elements of their CSR strategies, thus better understanding their thought structure, particularly about CSR decisions. This study has some limitations, which may encourage future research. The exploratory character of the research, with the analysis of two cases, constitutes a small sample size. Future research can use cognitive mapping to create several maps of different SME owner-managers to conduct a comparative analysis of their CSR engagement.