SMEs and CSR in Developing Countries

Résumé du document

The purpose of this article is to study the relationship between small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging countries and CSR.

Extraits

[...] Indeed, without any global restriction, most human beings would only act in order to maximize their pleasure in the short term. Regulation is therefore necessary, on the largest possible scale. The ecological footprint would be measured here at the level of a country, a continent or even the entire planet. This makes sense to the extent that a person who pollutes can be compensated by a beneficial environmental action. This is the "polluter pays" principle implemented in many countries. Most US pollution control laws use this system : for example the Gas Guzzler Tax for vehicles. [...]

[...] Assuming that the marginal cost is higher than the perceived price, the company will stop producing or will try to reduce other costs (labor for example) which could have adverse effects for the economy. One of the convincing solutions therefore seems at this stage to involve controlled regulation with associations between NGOs and companies. Indeed, studies have shown that companies use CSR schemes when they give them a direct benefit. Moreover, the energy transition brings today real assets for polluting companies. [...]

[...] The interest of this article is therefore to understand why this concept of CSR is struggling to settle in developing countries. Thus, the causes are numerous and are more complex than one might think. To support this thesis, the authors chose to study a large number of companies : this approach makes the article interesting through an experimental aspect. This gives credit to their study, which is based on solid and real foundations. Discussion This article makes us think about the concept of ecological footprint. [...]

[...] However, developing countries have a lot of SMEs, unlike large firms. It is therefore more difficult to reduce the global footprint of small businesses than of a few multinationals. Why I choose this article This article sheds a different light on the concept of CSR. Most of the time this concept is seen on a macro-environmental scale, for developed countries that are considered as polluters. The biggest polluters today are the Third World countries, in Latin America, China and India. [...]