Corporate Social Responsibility by Small and Medium Enterprises

Abstract

newline Abstract newlineWhile many Indian businesses have traditionally practiced philanthropy, charity, and donation- newlinebased assistance, the concept of CSR is still relatively new among Indian companies. In the last newlinedecade, the concepts of sustainability, business responsibility, CSR, sustainable development, newlineand stakeholder engagement have emerged and found calling in boardrooms and external newlinereporting of many companies. However, in recent decades and after the deployment of LPG newlinereforms, many Indian became global. In order to increase global competitiveness, they have newlineadopted global sustainability practices, especially alignment with UNGC, SDGs, and GRI newlineframework. It has impacted their CSR policy. They are increasingly practicing sustainability with newlinetheir stakeholders, i.e., formal, informal, internal and external, and direct and indirect newlinestakeholders from State, Business, and Society. The government of India also made it newlinecompulsory to spend 2% of their net profit on CSR. Many MNCs are trying to capture the global newlinemarket and following a long-term relationship. In these value chains, SMEs play an important newlinerole. For MNCs, it is crucial to engage with SMEs, primarily to expand their market and newlineproduction base. newlineThe concept of CSR has been extended to SMEs as well, although this sector is not part of the newlineformal CSR frameworks. SMEs produce a large proportion of the country s output, provide huge newlineemployment, and generate substantial revenues for the government, particularly in developing newlinecountries. However, most SMEs contribution to development, which may be treated as CSR, is newlinenot recognized. Apart from it, the lower band of the SME sector is not well aware of the CSR newlinebasics and lacks the necessary know-how for launching CSR initiatives. Therefore, CSR in SME newlinesector tends to be informal. newlineThis present study focuses on the CSR activities of SMEs by considering global aspects in the newlineIndian context. Most of the time, CSR is related to MNCs, but we intends to study how MNCs newlinewill create values for SMEs in India. How does the interaction of CSR and SMEs take place in newlinethe Indian context? This study covers management and stakeholder s engagement aspects and newlineunderstanding of the formal and informal structure of CSR in SMEs, especially the sustainable newlinedevelopment. It also covers the dynamics of CSR and governance of the multi-stakeholders. newlineMoreover, the study also tries to cover the alignment between CSR and SDGs, mainly in SMEs. newlineKeywords: CSR, SMEs, SDGs, Corporate Governance, Stakeholder Engagement, Sustainability newlinexii