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Possibly, CSR in SMEs is more implicit than explicit. The CSR scholars Dirk Matten and Jeremy Moon made a useful distinction between implicit and explicit CSR in their recent April 2008 paper in the Academy of Management Review. They suggested that explicit CSR consists of specific voluntary policies and programs by business in response to societal issues; but implicit CSR consists of values and norms for business behaviour motivated by broad consensus about the role and contribution of business. SMEs may be more likely to practise implicit CSR because it makes sense within a “business as usual” approach to behave responsibly and ethically. It may be harder for SMEs to practise explicit CSR, especially as defined and practised by big business, because it requires budgets and resources that are harder to find. So far, there is no explicit CSR public policy, but, due to the presence of a strong state, numerous laws and regula-tions do exist pertaining to corporate governance, consumer protection and reporting and environmental issues. There are also a number of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), mainly in the field of community development and awareness-raising of international standards and guidelines.
In order to avoid comparing apples and oranges, Matten/Moon (2004) differentiate between !(R)explicit!ˉ and !(R)implicit!ˉ CExplicit CSR covers corpo-rate policies assuming responsibility for the interests of society. It consists of voluntary, self-interest driven strategies, policies, and programmes by companies addressing issues perceived as being part of their social responsibility by the company and/or its stake-holders. By contrast, implicit CSR means the entirety of a country!ˉsformal and informal institutions assigning corporations an agreed share of responsibility for society!ˉs interests. The reason why certain forms of corporate behaviour represent explicit CSR in some countries and implicit CSR in others results from differing traditions of capital-ism, business systems, social welfare and industrial relations (Whitley 1999, Esping-Anderson 1999, Hollingsworth/Boyer 1997, Lane 1994). In recent years, explicit CSR has been gaining momentum in Europe, too. Also, the growing experience and sophis-tication of CSR practice has moved the boundary between pioneering and accepted practice.
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