Management Decision

Emerald Article: Exploring corporate social responsibility education: The small and medium-sized enterprise viewpoint Ya Fen Tseng, Yen-Chun Jim Wu, Wen-Hsiung Wu, Chun-Yu Chen

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To cite this document: Ya Fen Tseng, Yen-Chun Jim Wu, Wen-Hsiung Wu, Chun-Yu Chen, (2010),"Exploring corporate social responsibility education: The small and medium-sized enterprise viewpoint", Management Decision, Vol. 48 Iss: 10 pp. 1514 - 1528 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00251741011090306 Downloaded on: 21-10-2012 References: This document contains references to 37 other documents To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

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MD 48,10

Exploring corporate social responsibility education

The small and medium-sized enterprise viewpoint
Ya Fen Tseng
Department of Information Management, Chung Hwa University of Medical Technology, Rende Shiang, Taiwan

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Yen-Chun Jim Wu
Business Management Department, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

Wen-Hsiung Wu
College of Management at National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, and

Chun-Yu Chen
Department of Business Administration, Meiho Institute of Technology, Neipu, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose This study aims to investigate CSR-related practices implemented by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including their distinct opinions on CSR education. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire survey was sent to 50 industrial participants from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, including large businesses and SMEs. Factor and ANOVA analyses were adopted in this study. Findings The results reveal that large enterprises place more emphasis on the importance of CSR education than SMEs, based on the number of employees, the amount of capital, and business volume. Interestingly, it was also found that there is a positive signicant inuence on concern for CSR issues, teaching approaches and courses, if a rm sets up a CSR department, has annual CSR reporting, implements CSR, and evaluates its performance. Originality/value Despite the critical role of SMEs in national economies, the existing literature on CSR has traditionally focused on large enterprises. This study provides an empirical, valuable step towards an investigation into CSR education for SMEs on three dimensions: CSR issues, CSR teaching approaches, and CSR courses. The ndings also highlight individual strategies in shaping CSR programs in Taiwan. Keywords Social responsibility, Small to medium-sized enterprises, Teaching methods Paper type Research paper

Management Decision Vol. 48 No. 10, 2010 pp. 1514-1528 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0025-1747 DOI 10.1108/00251741011090306

1. Introduction Businesses have been under increasing pressure to demonstrably engage in activities known as corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR has traditionally been associated with large companies, but recognition of the growing signicance of the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector has led to an emphasis on their social and

environmental impacts (Fuller, 2003). Global views monthly (Gao, 2009) investigated six primary issues of CSR (information and communication with stockholders, labor relations, participation in public welfare, fair competition, environmental effects, and nancial disclosure) in large companies. Pedersen and Neergaard (2009) analyzed how managers in a multinational corporation (MNC) experience CSR, discussing how the alignment and misalignment of managerial perceptions are likely to affect corporate social performance. Cruz and Pedrozo (2009) further proposed potential challenges faced by MNCs managing CSR strategies. Given the signicant scale of small business in nearly every economy (Spence et al., 2003), the aggregate achievements of this sector have a major effect worldwide, especially in Taiwan. Industry in Taiwan has gradually focused on the importance of CSR addressing questions such as: how should the implementation of CSR be valued? What and how CSR courses should be implemented? More and more managers have recognized these issues, nding that CSR must be taught as a part of formal school curriculum (Gao, 2009). We are now also recognizing the importance of social responsibility education as it applies to small rms (Spence and Schmidpeter, 2003; Spence et al., 2003), with this being even more so the case in Taiwan. Furthermore, having a fundamental understanding on how SMEs view CSR education can add great value to relevance of CSR curriculum offered by an academic institution. In this work we build on the research of CSR school education and present ndings from the viewpoint of SMEs in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. This paper proposes CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses for exploring CSR education from the SME perspective. 2. Literature review 2.1 Small and medium-sized enterprise and corporate social responsibility While the growing visibility and global impact of large companies and brands have heralded calls for greater transparency and accountability, SMEs have remained largely invisible and have been unlikely to perceive CSR in terms of risk to brand image or reputation (Jenkins, 2004). Russo and Perrini (2010) argued that the idiosyncrasies of large rms and SMEs explain the different approaches to CSR. Although CSR has traditionally been the domain of the corporate sector, however for SMEs, issues closer to home are far more likely to hold their attention, such as employee motivation and retention and community involvement. Graaand et al. (2003) suggested that the most popular method of organizing CSR within SME rms is to assign one member of the board to be answerable to ethical questions, with formal instruments (such as codes of conduct) being less often employed to foster ethical behavior within the organization. SMEs are often portrayed badly in relation to such basic responsibilities (Bacon et al., 1996; Gibb, 2000; Hillary, 2000). Murillo and Lozano (2006) presented the results of analysis of four case studies on Catalan companies and showed how difcult it is for SMEs to understand CSR. Cornelius et al. (2008) identied a number of internal CSR markers that may be applied to measuring the extent to which internal CSR practices are being observed. These considerations may be contrasted with evidence that community-based CSR activities are often well developed in private-sector SMEs (Observatory of European SMEs, 2004).

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Cornelius et al. (2008) contended that the capabilities approach offers additional insights into CSR in social enterprises in general and into internal CSR activity in particular. Russo and Tencati (2009) investigated 3,626 Italian rms and found that formal CSR strategies seem to characterize large rms while informal CSR strategies prevail among micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. SMEs prefer to learn through networking and from their peers; such collaborative learning represents another possible avenue for greater SME engagement with CSR (Jenkins, 2004). Above reviews of existing literature aimed to determine that size is a factor on CSR attitude, engagement, approaches and learning activities of SMEs, thus the rst and second research hypotheses are formulated: H1. H1a. H1b. H1c. H2. Business scale has positive inuence on CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses. Total employees has positive inuence on CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses. Business capital has positive inuence on CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses. Business volume has positive inuence on CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses. CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses have the positive inuence on CSR department presence.

2.2 The importance of education in corporate social responsibility The amount of attention given to CSR in the curricula of MBA programs varies widely (Matten and Moon, 2004; Evans et al., 2006). Matten and Moon (2004) reported on a survey of CSR education in Europe. They found that some, but not all business schools were taking initiatives in the CSR area. CSR researchers found similar emphasis to ethical and environmental aspects. They also mentioned that the main drivers of CSR had been individual faculty members, which reect the value systems of society as well as the education and cultural cultivation. Evans et al. (2006), in their curricula analysis of over 200 full-time MBA programs, found support for institutional inuences of ethic courses, such as the positive inuence of a programs prestige and religious afliation. This nding is highly enlightening with regards to CSR education in Taiwan. Religious strength and the inuence of traditional Confucianism in Taiwanese society are deep-rooted, and therefore this inuence on CSR may be a unique characteristic of the Taiwan educational environment when compared with other regions. Western society values progress and growth, while traditional Eastern values focus on stability and harmony, with the impact of Confucianism potentially being a key difference between Taiwan and Western enterprise. Chinese society is beginning to tackle CSR in order to engage in global business, however numerous programs currently follow Western based indicators and reports. Such standards may not be suitable for Eastern societal contexts. It is higher educations responsibility to continuously challenge and critique value and knowledge claims that have prescriptive tendencies (Wals and Jickling, 2002). Furthermore, businesses need a corresponding ability to implement effective CSR. This is even more of a challenge for SMEs in

Taiwan, since such rms account for 97.7 percent of economic output, although being relatively small in scale and thus less competitive (SMEA Taiwan, 2009). Hence: H3. CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses have a positive inuence on CSR performance. Can business ethics or CSR be taught? Can they have an inuence? Certainly yes (Gioia, 2002). Supporting our thinking is what has now grown to be a considerable literature establishing the importance of education in CSR (Evans et al., 2006; Christensen et al., 2007; Prado-Lorenzo et al., 2008, Kletz, 2009). Matten and Moon (2004) additionally provided a review of mainstream CSR teaching in Europe, which became the basis of our hypotheses and survey. The traditional Taiwan education system values ethics over knowledge. However, rapid economic development has led education to become commoditized and with a more tools acquisition perspective. As a result, schools focus on the teaching of knowledge over morals. Therefore, it is of considerable importance to nd effective avenues to teach morals and to shape the attitudes and behavior of students in Taiwan through interactive and persuasive activities based on traditional Confucianism and religious connections. When SMEs take CSR issues seriously, they incorporate CSR concepts into business operations and make efforts to cultivate common corporate understanding among employees. During such a transition, education is vital as it can communicate and persuade staff and shareholders to support CSR. Well-designed education can help staff to establish and deepen CSR ideas, internalize CSR concepts into tacit knowledge, and train employees on CSR skills in order to aid CSR implementation. Hence: H4. CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses have a positive inuence on CSR implementation. 2.3 Enterprise CSR education With a push toward business ethics in every class, one result has been to put many business faculties in the uncomfortable position of having to teach outside their disciplinary specialties, particularly in team-taught and multidisciplinary programs (Vega, 2003). The UN Global Compact (2007) pointed out that companies need integrative management tools that help embed environmental, social, and governance concerns into their strategic thinking and daily operations. The compact principles for responsible management education in business school CSR education to which we can refer are: . purpose; . values; . method; . research; . partnership; and . dialogue. The UN Global Compact asks academic institutions to help shape the attitudes and behavior of business leaders through business education and calls on all institutions of

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higher learning dedicated to the education of business leaders to endorse the process and to participate actively in a global platform. The National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) has researched the environment and sustainability (E&S) issue by conducting a survey of more than 1,300 professionals and eight case studies (NEEF, 2009). According to survey respondents, the most important motivating factors for employees were concern for the environment and society, support or a mandate from the CEO, company reputation and job satisfaction. The case studies captured a variety of organizational models for employee education programs. For example, Cisco employees live and work in a web 2.0 world and are comfortable collaborating online whereas Wal-Mart nds a person-to-person approach the most practical and effective. Johnson & Johnson aims to raise environmental literacy among their employees. As with the E&S issues mentioned above, CSR knowledge cannot be isolated within an organization, but must rather be pervasive. Taiwan enterprises have recently started to pay more attention to CSR, with, for example, Global Views Monthly holding a sequence of Corporate Social Responsibility Awards from 2005 designed to advocate the importance of CSR by setting up eminent rms as role models. Many higher education institutions in Taiwan take education and research in business ethics seriously (Ip, 2008; Gao, 2009; Chang, 2009). Companies are interested in learning how to report to the public and reach out to employees. They also need to nd efcient educational models and tools to help implement CSR education programs (Vega, 2003; NEEF, 2009). Learning is the key to continuous improvement. What will our students be able to do better when they complete a CSR course? The creation of a healthy learning environment is particularly important for successful business ethics teaching. Psychological safety, reciprocity, and mutual respect between teacher and student combine to establish this sort of learning climate (Vega, 2003). Enterprises routinely carry out education and training which guarantee that business values are transmitted to employees correctly. Academic institutions benet greatly from inputs of enterprises in terms of their attitudes and practices of CSR. In this paper we investigate three types of CSR education: enterprise level CSR issues, CSR teaching approaches, and CSR courses in order to investigate a CSR education framework from an enterprise perspective. Based on the above review of existing literature, the fth hypothesis is proposed as below: H5. CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses have a positive inuence on CSR reporting. 3. Research methodology The goal of the research design was to investigate CSR implementation in Taiwan SMEs and to further explore their viewpoints on CSR education. This research mainly employed a questionnaire survey. Data for variables were collected measuring three dimensions of CSR education: CSR issues for enterprises (OECD, 2000; Gao, 2009), CSR teaching approaches (Matten and Moon, 2004), and CSR courses (Matten and Moon, 2004). Questions were presented using a ve-point Likert scale which further requested respondents to ll in 0-100 scores in order to obtain more subtle results. Scores within the 0-20 range were dened as strongly disagree, 20-40 as disagree, 40-60 as neither agree nor disagree, 60-80 as agree, and 80-100 as strongly agree. Agreement scores were collected for all items: in the CSR issues dimension measuring

the level of CSR implementation of the respondents company; in the CSR teaching approaches dimension measuring respondent agreement on whether the approaches in question can improve learning outcomes; and in the CSR courses dimension measuring which CSR themes were seen as suitable for school based curriculum. 3.1 Respondents The European Union (EU) has standardized the SME concept and its current denition categorizes companies with fewer than ten employees as micro, those with fewer than 50 employees as small, and those with fewer than 250 as medium (European Commission, 2005). Based on the EU standard denitions, this study sent out questionnaires to SMEs in Kaohsiung, Taiwan; achieving 64 valid samples that contain sufcient information for SME analysis. Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan and is a prosperous industrial and commercial center, and two export processing zones. This study also adopted a response and non-response test from 50 valid responses and fourteen non-responses. The results revealed that these samples were representative ( p 0.211, p 0.05). 3.2 Instrument development 3.2.1 Enterprise CSR issues. The OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises cover overall concepts and principles, general policies, disclosure, employment and industrial relations, environmental issues, combating bribery, consumer interests, science and technology, competition, and taxation (OECD, 2000, pp. 9-26). The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as a primary agent driving globalization can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and nance advance in ways that benet economies and societies everywhere. Global Views Monthly (Gao, 2009) addressed six dimensions according to the suggestions of the UN Global Compacts ten principles and the OECD guidelines for multinational enterprises. The dimensions encompassed information management and communication with stockholders, labor relations, participation in public welfare, fair competition, environmental effects, and nancial disclosure. This study thus adopted these six dimensions for measuring enterprise CSR effectiveness as shown in Table I: dimension 1 CSR issues. 3.2.2 CSR teaching approaches. Matten and Moon (2004) found that there was widespread use of practitioner speakers, be it from business, CSR industry, or NGOs, as well as industry case studies. They also found that these methods dwarfed the more academic instruments of e-learning, audiovisual aids, etc. This suggests that CSR teaching curricula are heavily inuenced by practice, a nding supported by the fact that 80 percent of respondents reported industry to be the single most important teaching partner. Thus, we adopted business speakers, CSR case studies, NGO speakers, CSR professional speakers, internships, and communication/media speakers as the teaching approaches utilized for CSR education, as shown in Table I: dimension 2 CSR teaching approaches. 3.2.3 CSR courses. It is worth noting that some institutions that have pioneered CSR education do have signicant numbers of researchers and PhD students, conrming

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Dimensions/items Dimension 1 CSR issues CSR information management and communication with stockholders Corporate social public and performance management system Disclosure of corporate social duty information Communication and negotiation with stockholders Labor relations Labor relations and welfare Labor educational training and studying Female worker rights protection Participation in public welfare Public participation and donation Fair competition Supply chain management and standards Combating bribery Environmental effects Environmental policy and effects management Presence of emergency contingency plans for environmental calamity Implementation of environmental and social responsibility Saving energy and carbon reduction Financial disclosure Disclosure of nancial information Disclosure of other important information Tax liabilities Dimension 2 CSR teaching approaches Business speakers CSR case-studies NGO speakers CSR professional speakers Internships Communications/media speakers Dimension 3 CSR courses Business ethics Environmental/ecology management Corporate social responsibility Sustainable development Accounting and nance Stakeholder management Globalization

Cronbachs alpha

Factor loading

Literature basis OECD (2000, pp. 9-26)

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0.843 0.750 0.705 0.682 0.735 0.601 0.518 0.582

0.642 0.473 0.473 0.768 0.628 0.640 0.510 0.515 0.766 0.790 0.806 0.403 0.900 0.730 0.788 0.758 0.762 0.594 0.761 0.859 0.570 0.612 0.787 0.550 0.628 0.599 0.640 Matten and Moon (2004) Matten and Moon (2004)

Table I. Measurement conducts and CFA for the measurement model

the strong role of active research scholars in pioneering the topics (Matten and Moon, 2004). As mentioned above, business ethics, environmental/ecology management, corporate social responsibility, sustainable development, corporate governance, accounting and nance, stakeholder management, and globalization are important aspects of CSR courses (Table I: dimension 3 CSR courses). 3.3 Instrument quality and content validity The research instrument employed conrmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine reliability and validity. The internal consistency reliability alpha values ranged from 0.642 to 0.9 (shown in Table I Cronbachs alpha), which is above the acceptable threshold of 0.70 as suggested by Nunnally and Bernstein (1994). Convergent validity was assessed based on factor loading composite reliabilities and the variances extracted (Hair et al., 2006). Convergent validity results are shown in Table I factor loading. The average variances extracted, which reect the amount of variance in the indicators accounted for by the latent constructs were in the range of 0.403 to 0.806, which exceeded the recommended level of 0.5 expected for the average variance of subjective inuence (Hair et al., 2006), also indicating acceptability. 4. Results of the questionnaire survey 4.1 Agreement scores for each dimension The means and standard deviations for all studied variables are reported. Of the three dimensions, CSR issues had the highest average score of agreement (75.38) and CSR teaching approaches had the lowest average score (65.03). This tells us that respondents identied more with CSR issues than with teaching approaches and CSR courses. In the following we elaborate on these three dimensions. CSR issues: Matten and Moon (2004) mentioned that ethics and environmentalism are the aspects upon which business schools place primary emphasis. The Global View Monthly CSR awards 2009 (Gao, 2009) showed that large companies in Taiwan thought that the most salient issues are nancial disclosure, labor relations, and environmental effects. Our survey of SMEs in Taiwan ranks the importance of nancial disclosure, labor relations, and fair competition, which is similar to the survey of large Taiwanese companies. Environmental issues appear to be perceived as too serious in terms of the SME perspective so that there are no clear responses in that regard. Teaching approaches: Matten and Moon (2004) found widespread use of business speakers, CSR case-studies, and NGO speakers. Our survey highlights CSR case-studies, business speakers, and NGO speakers as useful teaching approaches from the Taiwanese SME viewpoint, yielding nearly identical ndings as the European survey. CSR courses: Matten and Moon (2004) found that the research areas of European CSR scholars mostly focused on business ethics, environmental/ecology management, and corporate social responsibility. Our survey of Taiwanese SMEs revealed exactly the same ranking and ndings as that former research. 4.2 Difference analysis regarding business scale We observed a signicant business scale effect (total employees, business capital, and business volume) on employee agreement with CSR (H1). These results are

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illustrated in Tables II-IV. This set of results demonstrates how the CSR attitude and business scale are causally related. In effect, the bigger the business a respondent was in, the more advanced their attitude towards the CSR dimensions were, in the sense that they felt CSR was a prerequisite for the competent management of their rms. Using mean scores to facilitate ease of calculation, a t-test was used to determine whether there were differences in individual CSR factors. Overall, signicant differences were found between the two rm size scales based on total employees for the entire CSR issues dimension (F 23.331, p , 0.001 * * *) and for all individual factors, except the public welfare item. Employees of enterprises with fewer than 200 total employees (SMEs) were less in agreement about their companys CSR implementation than the respondents of companies with more than 200 employees (Table II, H1a). In addition, signicant differences were found between rm sizes based on the amount of capital for the entire CSR issues dimension (F 17.640, p , 0.001 * * *) and for all individual factors, except the environmental effects item.

Source Table II. t-test calculated differences regarding rm size and CSR factors Total employees

Dimensions CSR issues CSR teaching approaches CSR courses

Mean1 (1-200, SME) 66.708 61.167 69.230

Mean2 (. 201) 80.815 67.203 75.504

F-score 23.331 1.648 3.485

Signicance 0.000 * * * 0.205 0.068

Notes: *p , 0.05, * *p , 0.01, * * *p , 0.001

Source Table III. t-test calculated differences regarding rm capitalization and CSR factors Amount of capital

Dimensions CSR issues CSR teaching approaches CSR courses

Mean1 (80 million, SME) 68.812 62.227 70.156

Mean2 (. 80 million) 81.177 67.232 75.673

F-score 17.640 1.200 2.846

Signicance 0.000 * * * 0.279 0.098

Notes: *p , 0.05, * *p , 0.01, * * *p , 0.001

Source Business volume

Dimensions CSR issues

Mean1 (1 hundred million, SME) 66.997

Mean2 (. 1 hundred Fmillion) score Signicance 79.482 66.738 74.437 14.622 1.327 1.216 0.000 * * * 0.255 0.276

Table IV. t-test calculated differences regarding business volume and CSR factors

CSR teaching approaches CSR courses

61.044 70.467

Notes: *p , 0.05, * *p , 0.01, * * *p , 0.001

Employees of enterprises with capital amounts exceeding NT 80 million were more in agreement that their company has better performance in CSR issues than the respondents of companies with capitalizations of under 80 million (SMEs) (Table III, H1b). Moreover, signicant differences were found between rms with differing business volumes for the entire CSR issues dimension (F 14.622, p , 0.001 * * *) and for all individual factors, with the exception of the public welfare item. Employees of enterprises with a business volume over one hundred million were more in agreement that their company has better performance in CSR issues than the respondents of companies with business volumes of under one hundred million (SMEs) (Table IV, H1c). On the other hand, there was no signicant effect of business scale on employee attitude toward CSR education (CSR teaching approaches and CSR courses in school), however, as a result, regardless of enterprise size, opinions on CSR education courses were consistent. A signicant effect of business scale on employee perceived agreement of CSR factors is thus reported (H1). This set of results demonstrates how the CSR attitude and business scale are causally related, which corresponds to previous research (Bolton, 1971; Murillo and Lozano, 2006; Russo and Tencati, 2009; Russo and Perrini, 2010). That is, size is a factor. As we noted, SMEs tend to have a personalized style of management and thus individual factors such as religious views may have signicant impact upon CSR orientation in such rms (Bolton, 1971; Angelidis and Ibrahim, 2004; Evans et al., 2006). SMEs rarely use the language of CSR to describe their activities, but informal CSR strategies play a large part in them (Russo and Tencati, 2009). SMEs in Taiwan generally have a sound understanding of local cultural and political contexts, and many SMEs already practice some form of social responsibility in their own way. Taiwanese family-owned companies in particular often exhibit strong ethical and philanthropic approaches. On the other hand, results show that there was no signicant effect of business scale on employee attitudes toward CSR education. This once again tells us that respondents had more identication with CSR issues than with teaching approaches and CSR courses. From this we can see that SMEs emphasize their social, economic, and environmental impacts, however, SMEs still need to learn how to create a favorable and individual framework for responsible competitiveness. 4.3 Difference analysis regarding CSR business practice implementation These results demonstrate some interesting viewpoints from this study (Table V). First, CSR issues ( p 0.011 *), teaching approaches ( p 0.033 *), and CSR courses ( p 0.004 * *) had a positive relationship with CSR department presence (H2). The presence of a CSR department in a company inuenced the exploration of CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses for managers. The CSR department possesses an important position in implementing CSR. When a company implements the CSR department, the manager should focus on the inuence of CSR issues, CSR teaching approaches, and CSR courses. Second, CSR issues ( p 0.034 *) had a positive inuence on the performance of CSR implementation (H3). However, CSR teaching approaches and courses had no effect on CSR performance. This indicated that CSR issues affect performance, regardless of whether the CSR implementation is of high quality. Moreover, respondents clearly are not aware of the implementation of CSR teaching approaches and courses within their rms. The responses thus do not reect the performance of CSR teaching approaches

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Source

Independent

R2

MSE

F test 6.931 4.847 8.905 4.786 2.309 2.418 23.565 6.725 9.817 19.958 4.637 4.827

Signicance 0.011 * 0.033 * 0.004 * * 0.034 * 0.135 0.127 0.000 * * * 0.013 * 0.003 * * 0.000 * * * 0.036 * 0.033 *

The signicance of the independent variables on CSR department presence CSR department presence CSR issues 1.875 1.875 CSR teaching approaches 2.248 2.248 CSR courses 1.726 1.726

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The signicance of the independent variables on CSR performance CSR performance CSR issues 1.348 CSR teaching approaches 1.125 CSR courses 0.529

1.348 1.125 0.529

Table V. The signicance of the independent variables on CSR department presence, CSR performance, CSR implementation, and CSR reporting

The signicance of the independent variables on CSR implementation CSR implementation CSR issues 4.894 4.894 CSR teaching approaches 3.012 3.012 CSR courses 1.873 1.873 The signicance of the independent variables on CSR reporting CSR reporting CSR issues 4.365 CSR teaching approaches 2.159 CSR courses 1.008 Notes: *p , 0.05; * *p , 0.01; * * *p , 0.001 4.365 2.159 1.008

and courses. When school education gives more attention to CSR teaching approaches and courses, the performance of CSR is expected to increase accordingly. Third, CSR issues ( p 0.000 * * *), teaching approaches ( p 0.013 *), and courses ( p 0.003 * *) had a positive impact if the enterprise implemented CSR (H4). This implies that CSR implementation is important for conferring CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses. When a company focuses on CSR issues, CSR teaching approaches, and courses, CSR implementation should be promoted. Finally, CSR issues ( p 0.000 * * *), teaching approaches ( p 0.036 *), and CSR courses ( p 0.033 *) all had a positive inuence on CSR reporting (H5). The performance of CSR issues, teaching approaches and courses is present in the CSR reporting of an enterprise. The CSR report is also a tool for sharing knowledge and communicating experiences within a company. The CSR report is thus important when an enterprise enforces CSR issues. When develop CSR reporting mechanisms, managers should acknowledge the inuences of CSR issues, CSR teaching approaches, and CSR courses. 5. Discussion and implications This paper set out to address questions regarding the extent and manner in which enterprise education addresses the broad topic of CSR for school education. The survey gathered data from business education institutions in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and opinions regarding CSR issues (OECD, 2000; Gao, 2009), CSR teaching approaches (Matten and Moon, 2004), and CSR courses in school (Matten and Moon, 2004). The signicant contribution which SME business scale has on CSR involvement has been previously described (Baker, 2003). Here we reported on the signicant inuences of business scale (total employees, amount of capital, and business volume) on CSR

issues (H1). Also of interest is the fact that the non-SME employees rated CSR issues dimension scores comparatively higher. The larger the business scale, the more resources there are for the creation of a positive working environment and responsibility, with employees beneting more from CSR involvement and feedback. This nding, combined with previous research, may lend some support for continuing to offer nancial incentives and education for CSR involvement in SMEs. Especially in Taiwan, SMEs play an important role in the overall economic system albeit with distinctive cultures and considerations with regards to CSR. Adapted guidelines and indices may be required for SMEs rather than relying upon the same frameworks as larger businesses. Advancement of CSR in SMEs indeed merits more serious attention. The NEEF survey highlighted the need for educational tools to include case studies, success stories, and training materials (NEEF, 2009), which echoes our results of the importance of CSR case-studies, business speakers, and NGO speakers. The successful cases and stories of Taiwanese SMEs can especially provide other enterprises with effective reference in leading companies towards an international CSR approach and to raise CSR literacy among staff. In the present study, the implications are that employees in businesses with bigger business scale will pay more attention to CSR education. However, from the results summarized in the tables, it also appears that, based on the low scores for both the teaching approaches and courses dimensions that the employees enrolled in this study did not totally agree with the methods/tools proposed, preferring a more practical and interactive learning environment dominated by teacher-led/business-corporate exercises with a capacity to inuence student attitudes toward CSR. Sims (2002) mentioned that educators should design learning activities that will appeal to each learning and teaching style. Teaching approaches and courses should capture a variety of organizational models for employee CSR education programs. This viewpoint can be used as a reference when schools carry out CSR education. Additional interesting ndings were also revealed. Different from ndings from previous studies that claimed that informal CSR strategies play a large part in SMEs (Murillo and Lozano, 2006; Russo and Tencati, 2009), we found that most enterprises (84 percent) had set up a CSR department, creating a positive atmosphere for supporting CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses. Based on interviews, it was also suggested that the CSR department indeed has reached its positive goals in promoting CSR awareness. School education thus teaches the importance of the CSR department (H2). In addition, CSR courses (business ethics, environmental effects, corporate social responsibility, sustainable development, accounting and nance, stakeholder management, and globalization) should be brought into school education, making CSR education more practical. Another key nding was that a majority of enterprises (62 percent) could not implement CSR, based on the employee perspective. However, employees did consider that CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses could inuence the implementation of CSR. Employees thus realized the importance of CSR and supported CSR implementation in the business (H4). School education should recognize the importance of implementing CSR and adopt suitable teaching approaches and courses for keeping abreast of enterprise CSR issues. Moreover, CSR teaching approaches and courses did not inuence CSR performance. Thus, the performance of CSR teaching approaches and courses cannot immediately become effective, with enterprises needing to support such CSR initiatives over a long period of

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time (H3). The performance of CSR should be identied after awhile. Enterprises will thus realize the importance of CSR and suggest the importance of CSR in school education. If CSR education can be offered to students in a very early stage, its long-term impact on a rms bottom line or business performance can be anticipated. Finally, CSR reporting also had a positive inuence on support for CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses in the enterprises examined. We found that most businesses had a CSR reporting mechanism (62 percent). Managers thus consider CSR reporting for the enterprise to be important. The CSR reports have a positive impact on CSR issues, CSR teaching approaches for school education, and CSR courses in school education (H5). Matten and Moons (2004) previous research also suggested strengthening the manner in which the CSR report is conveyed through teaching approaches and CSR courses. The interviewees additionally recommend some approaches (business speakers, CSR case studies, NGO professional speakers, internships, and communications/media speakers) for school education. This research veried the impact of integrating different factors of CSR issues, teaching approaches, and courses into school education and evaluated the difference of these factors in school education from the SME viewpoint in Taiwan. It provided a useful reference for rms located in other countries with circumstances similar to those in Taiwan and further studies may include samples from different regions and organization sizes in order to increase the generalizability of this research.

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