Socially Responsible Practices of Australian Smes: A Marketing Perspective

While issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and practices of large corporations have been widely addressed, the CSR practices of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in an Australian context have remained largely unexplored in the literature. Australian SMEs are making significant financial contributions to community welfare which is reflected in their annual contribution of A$251 million to the Australian community (ABS: Generosity of Australian Businesses, 2002). This paper applies a modified version of an empirically tested CSR framework (Quazi and O’Brien, 2000) and uses a case study methodology to map the state of CSR practices of SMEs in Australia. The findings indicate that SMEs demonstrate their social obligations in terms of two contrasting orientations; profit versus non-profit and marketing versus altruism. These findings highlight important implications for marketing theory and practice.