Current Trends and Future Challenges of Communication Policies and Practices Regarding the Management of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): The Case of Latin American SMEs

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to carry out a theoretical review of the state of the art in relation to Latin American Small and Medium Enterprises' (SMEs) communication practices and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) from 2009 to 2016. A range of recently published papers (2009–2016) is retrieved in a literature search of the Web of Science and Google Scholar under keywords such as ‘CSR’, ‘SME’, ‘Communication’, and ‘CSR in Latin America’. This chapter provides information about CSR in SMEs, indicating what can be found on this topic and how the management of CSR communication can help those firms. It also recognizes the lack of any real formation in SMEs to solve their problems in this area. This chapter emphasizes that, in general terms, SMEs are aware of CSR management opportunities but, because of the aforementioned constraints, their current CSR communications practices are absolutely basic and their management is still limited and short-term. Instead of a generalized exhaustive study, this is an approach to develop new studies in the future. It does not contain empirical results but rather practical information for reflections on CSR and communication in Latin American SMEs. A useful source of information for SME managers. CSR communications policies generate no value unless they have been taken into account in the overall design of corporate CSR policy, particularly if there is no clear vision of how new stakeholders may be more valuable strategically than operationally. This chapter fulfils an identified information/resources need and offers indications for future lines of research.

Citation

Carrillo-Durán, M.-V. and Tato-Jimánez, J.-L. (2017), "Current Trends and Future Challenges of Communication Policies and Practices Regarding the Management of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): The Case of Latin American SMEs", Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance (Developments in Corporate Governance and Responsibility, Vol. 11), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 41-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2043-052320170000011003