The Pursuit of Corporate Social Responsibility in Developing Countries by Dutch Small and Medium Enterprises

This research aimed to explore the determinants of corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement amongst Dutch small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in developing countries. Transnational supply chains come along with many challenges in terms of CSR, as the public also becomes increasingly more educated about the origin of products, fueling accusations and controversies concerning environmental pollution, human rights abuse, and exploitation within the supply chain of Western companies with transnational supply chains. Thus it is of critical importance to advance CSR as an integral part of business processes, an argument that is apparent in the increasingly expanding CSR literature. This study was completed in collaboration with MVO Nederland and their yearly Thermometer survey, which surveyed 1.166 Dutch SMEs across numerous industries, providing a solid foundation for this follow-up study. The main results show that the main sentiments towards CSR are very optimistic, with a lot of participants addressing its essential role within businesses nowadays. Many have indicated externally driven impulses as their main motivation to strive for the further advancement of CSR within their company. However, companies with a direct business model consistently showed more activity and drive to further CSR in comparison to companies with an indirect business model.