Reconciling Business Social Responsibility Goals, Activities and Practices in Hospitality SMMES in an Emerging Economy
Despite the prominence of business social responsibility (BSR) studies in advanced economies and their gradual maturation in emerging economies, no systematic attempt has been made to reconcile BSR goals, activities and entrenched practices that support them. In emerging economies where BSR is gaining currency but remains vaguely understood, the pernicious effect of small, micro and medium enterprises' (SMMEs) casual approach to BSR is sheer reductionism that narrows down BSR goals, activities and practices exclusively to philanthropy. This ideological illusion often precludes SMMEs from leveraging their competitive advantage due to their negation of paramount ethical, legal, and economic considerations. Drawing on quantitative approach, a survey was conducted on 92 owner/managers of hospitality SMMEs in the Free State province, South Africa to explore the relationship between BSR goals, activities and practices. Evidence suggests that hospitality SMMEs' goals are crystallised in conformity to laws and regulations and in what society conceives as legitimate norms. While their BSR activities are concentrated predominantly in philanthropy, they also extend to other economic and social African Journal of Business and Economic Research (AJBER) Indexed at: EBSCO, ProQuest, J Gate and Sabinet Accredited by IBSS Vol. 13, (Issue 1) April 2018 pp 177 218 Reconciling Business Social Responsibility Goals. 178 concerns like giving discounts to long term customers, combating crime in local communities, maintaining employee satisfaction and conducting business ethically. When BSR goals and activities are reconciled, BSR economic activities and BSR based economic growth will be positively affected as these variables are significantly correlated to the latter. The other BSR goals and activities are not significantly correlated with the BSR practices. Recommendations for leveraging economic dimensions of BSR should be considered to improve SMME competitiveness. Introduction and problem statement Business social responsibility (BSR) which entails economic, legal, ethical and discretionary expectations that society has of organisations at a given point in time| (Carroll Buchholtz 2003:36 cited in Asemah, Okpanachi and Olumuji, 2013) has been a staple discourse of SMMEs in the developed North (Fisher, Geenen, Jurcevic, McClintock Davis, 2008; Jenkins, 2009; Fitjar, 2010; Gellert de Graaf, 2012; Lamberti Noci, 2012; Wickert, Scherer Spence, 2016) Nonetheless, the findings from such contexts cannot be assumed to be transposable to developing countries where survivalist orientation and necessity driven entrepreneurship dominate SMMEs in the underdeveloped South. As literature suggests, developing countries' SMMEs are different from business entities encountered in advanced economies as they comprise informal enterprises and smaller micro firms created out of necessity and exhibit different orientations to basic social and environmental functions to those of the developed North (De Kok et al. 2013; Demuijnck Ngnodjom, 2013; Jamali, Lund Thomsen, Jeppesen, 2017) The BSR studies conducted in the developed North foregrounded inter alia, the development of a corporate social responsibility (CSR) model for small and medium sized enterprises founded on particular business opportunities (Jenkins, 2009) the operationalisation of CSR among small firms devoid of large competitors (Fitjar, 2010) and aging workforce management (AWM) as a component of CSR (Gellert and Jan de Graaf, 2012) Other studies have focused on the intersection between CSR and corporate strategy in medium sized companies (Lamberti Noci, 2012) the typologies of CSR adopted by Swedish companies (Le, Herold and Yu, 2015) and the extent to which a strategic orientation matters in the CSR performance relationship (Nejati, Quazi, Amran Ahmad, 2016) Given their orientation towards CSR, which has Patient Rambe (AJBER) Volume 13, Issue 1, April 2018, Pp 177 218 179 resonance with large corporations rather than business social responsibility which targets small firms, none of these studies grapple with the interface between BSR goals, BSR activities and BSR practices incisively. More so, none of them emphasise hospitality SMMEs, where the environmental dimension of BSR has taken root in recent years. The exceptions that have covered the tourism sector (see Mahony Jurgens van Zyl, 2002; Roberts Tribe, 2005; Meyer, 2007; Scheou Amandine Southon, 2013) did not focus on BSR per se but rather economic and environmental sustainability, pro poor developmental strategies and local economic development issues. Apart from the profound visibility of SMME's BSR initiatives in developed countries' literature and their emergent nature in developing economies, there is academic confusion about the constitution and breadth of SMME's BSR activities (see Ashley Gareth Haysom, 2006; Betancourt 2016; Dzansi, 2016; Jamali, Lund Thomsen Jeppesen, 2017) For instance, SMMEs may not necessarily conceive the gamut of their social responsibility activities as constituting BSR per se (see Dzansi, 2004; Moeti, 2016; Jamali et al. 2017) Perhaps this explains the vague and troubled interpretations of BSR with reference to SMMEs in emerging economies. Fitjar (2010) bemoans the prevalence of elusive explanations of small businesses' CSR activities in existing literature, which tends to erroneously assume the ever presence of large competitors. In the same vein, given the uniqueness of medium sized companies' approach to CSR, Lamberti and Noci (2012) have reiterated the need for more robust research into BSR of SMMEs. The lack of robust research on SMMEs' BSR activities manifests at two levels namely, (1) limited knowledge of the different patterns of BSR engagement with respect to BSR talk i.e. impression management and the creation of symbolic images and documentation) and BSR walk (substantive implementation of BSR policies, structures and procedures) (2) limited knowledge of the influence of firm size on BSR engagement (Wickert, Scherer Spence, 2016) Given the incalculable gulf that exists between BSR impressionist gestures and the entrenchment of the actual practices, grasping the nexus among intended BSR intentions (i.e. social responsibility goals) the actual implementation (i.e. BSR activities) and the institutionalisation of such activities (i.e. BSR practices) cannot be taken for granted, hence this study. Reconciling Business Social Responsibility Goals. 180 Research questions Despite the growing research into BSR in developing countries, the role of SMMEs in BSR in the developing world has received less attention (Jamali, Lund Thomsen, Jeppesen, 2017) in particular small tourism firms in emerging economies (Roberts Tribe, 2005, Moeti, 2016) Of importance is the limited research into the interface of BSR goals, activities and practices (Moeti, 2016) In view of the aforementioned lack of systematic research into an integrated approach to BSR that reconciles BSR goals, activities and entrenched practices, the current research address the following research questions: 1. What types of BSR goals and activities do hospitality SMME owner/managers and employees in the Free State engage in? 2. What is the relationship between BSR goals, activities, and practices of the hospitality SMMEs in the Free State? Such an investigation is consistent with Jamali et al.'s (2017) imploration for researchers to pay more attention to understanding their specificities and contributions to BSR. The inclusion of employees in this study arose from the concern that much literature on SMMEs' BSR activities tends to overemphasise the perspectives of owner/managers to the exclusion of employees (e.g. supervisors, team leaders) who despite their invaluable knowledge of BSR, remain under represented in such literature.