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The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of ethics and social responsibility on employees’ affective commitment in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This is a quantitative research. The authors employ multistage sampling technique, non-probability and judgmental sampling method. Data were collected through questionnaire survey to measure the respondents’ perceptions of the ethics and social responsibility, as well as internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. The data obtained were analyzed through variance-based structural equation modeling (SEM), i.e., partial least square SEM.

The findings reveal that perceived role of ethics and social responsibility (PRESOR) and internal CSR are positively related to employees’ affective commitment. Job satisfaction is found to be mediating the relationship between PRESOR and affective commitment. The result also showed that internal CSR practices mediate the relationship between PRESOR and affective commitment.

There are few limitations in the present research. First, present research merely investigates the practices of ethics and social responsibility by SMEs and did not perform a comparison with larger organizations. Second, the use of non-probability sampling method is unable to generalize results for the entire population. Future research could address the shortcoming of present research in order to further contribute to the academic and business world.

The findings provide insights to entrepreneurs and SMEs on the manifestation of ethics and social responsibility in enhancing employees’ affective commitment. In turn, it reduces employees’ turnover intention and enhances SMEs sustainability to strive in the competitive environment.

These findings highlight the positive chain effects of enterprises in discharging their moral obligation as well as their social responsibility. The enterprises are benefited from the good reputation which may act as a magnet to attract talent-employees and also sustaining their enterprises through employees’ retention.

This research paper contributes to current knowledge by painting a better picture on the importance of ethics and social responsibility and internal CSR from the employees’ perception. As to date, employees’ perception of ethics and social responsibility and internal CSR practices are still under-investigated. Moreover, past research often focuses the impact of ethics and social responsibility in the larger corporation but scant research is conducted in the smaller organization such as SMEs.

The aim of this study is to identify the association between leadership styles (LS) and employee commitment(EC) among employees working in the mechanical manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), mediated by job satisfaction.

The research is cross-sectional and the survey method was used, and Pearson correlation analyses, regression analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used to examine the hypothesis. A sample of 911 responses was collected from 102 mechanical manufacturing SMEs in and around Bangalore, India.

EC depends on the age, the experience of employees, LS of the superior and job satisfaction of employees who are working in the mechanical manufacturing SMEs. The research found out that job satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between LS and EC.

The study is cross-sectional in nature; it measures and quantifies the different variables at a single point period; therefore, the research does not offer outcomes over a long period.

To enhance the commitment of employees working in the mechanical manufacturing SMEs, managers/superiors should make an effort to exhibit a holistic view of LS that enhances job satisfaction and improves the pleasant relationship in the work environment.

In the competitive business environment retaining skilled and talented employees is the major challenge for the organization. Many research studies explored that committed employees will retain in the organization for a long tenure. Thus, our study contributes to the body of the literature on predictors of EC. It is noted that the involvement of employees by the leaders during the decision-making process, creates an effective working ambience for the employees and establishes a pleasant relationship among employees. The leader will motivate the employees to work efficiently and effectively, in addition to that they motivate employees to continue working with the same organization. Hence there is a need for the mechanical manufacturing firms to design and implement strategies of motivating employees to remain in the organization. Our study was cross-sectional in nature; it measures and quantifies the different variables at a single point period; therefore, research does not offer outcomes over a long period. Hence a longitudinal study over some time gives more accurate outcomes, and it is more appropriate. This study focused on employees working in the mechanical manufacturing firms, in and around Bangalore, India; therefore, findings cannot be generalized to all employees of the mechanical manufacturing firms.

This research contributes to the existing literature by exploring further evidence and support for the relationship between LS and EC in mechanical manufacturing SMEs. And research also reveals that job satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between the LS and EC in mechanical manufacturing SMEs.

Starting from the question whether the globalisation process leads to a social “race to the bottom”, this paper aims to highlight the international transfer of socially responsible, employee‐oriented practices by multinational small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) as a possible way to counter such a trend.

Based on a literature review, an exploratory framework – building on three perspectives – is proposed about the conditions in which employee‐oriented corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects long‐term firm performance positively. First, the stakeholder view on CSR entails that employees can be considered as legitimate stakeholders of the firm justifying introduction of employee‐oriented CSR. Second, the human resource management perspective matters as employee‐oriented CSR materialises in human resource management policies and practices that increase employee commitment. Finally, as regulative, normative and cognitive institutions differ across countries, the institutionalist perspective is relevant to understand diverging demands on content and form of employee‐oriented CSR practices.

It is argued that owner‐managers of (multinational) SMEs, who view their employees as legitimate stakeholders of the firm, will introduce employee‐oriented CSR out of their sense of moral responsibility towards their employees. This sense of moral responsibility is conditional on achieving sustainable mutual value creation as a result of employee‐oriented CSR. Finally, transfer of employee‐oriented CSR to foreign subsidiaries is positively mediated by the level of owner‐managers' institutional entrepreneurship.

This is one of the few studies addressing the position of employees as internal stakeholders of small and medium‐sized enterprises in an international context. It signals the relevance of institutional differences across countries to entrepreneurs who wish to improve long‐term firm performance through employee‐oriented CSR.

Organisational commitment (OC) has become a hot behavioural topic among researchers, scholars and consulting firms. However, OC instruments have rarely been studied and developed by academics in small and medium-sized Thai enterprises (SMEs). The purpose of this paper is to develop an instrument to measure the OC of Generation Y employees in Thai SMEs.

A measurement scale for OC was established in three stages. First, 16 questions were developed as a questionnaire based on the concepts and theories of OC, and a survey was conducted for 360 Generation Y employees working in various SMEs. Second, the questions were validated using exploratory factor analysis and, finally, confirmatory factor analysis and convergent validity were tested.

The OC instrument presented excellent reliability at 0.865. Three factors of the 16 questions as normative commitment, affective commitment and continuance commitment were extracted. These all passed the general rule of thumb for minimum acceptability of a measurement system.

This OC instrument has concrete psychometric measurements and can be applied by researchers, scholars, practitioners and organisations in other settings, especially in the Thai context. Importantly, factor analysis results suggested that the OC questionnaire was suitable for utilisation and application as is, or with minimal modifications, to various business fields and/or settings.

Discusses the experience of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with ISO 9000 series certification, based on the results of a Western Australian questionnaire survey. It explores issues ranging from why certification was sought, the benefits derived and disappointments. Also examines the problems encountered by SMEs and how they dealt with them. Comparisons are made between those SMEs perceiving more success with ISO 9000 series certification and those which do not. Findings suggest that SMEs are experiencing mixed results from ISO 9000 series certification. Some are reporting considerable internal benefits while many are not experiencing external benefits. An encouraging outcome is that a number of SMEs see ISO 9000 series certification as a useful first step in the quality journey with a view to moving forward in the direction of a broader quality management approach.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the generally positive impact of transformational leadership on organizational commitment in large organizations can be extended to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in the manufacturing and service industry. The authors investigate the possible moderator effects of a participative and directive leadership style.

The collected data from 588 employees who rated 93 supervisors within 35 Dutch SMEs in both manufacturing and service industry. The authors analyse the nested data by means of multilevel modelling.

Transformational leadership, defined as visionary leadership and development stimulation, was positively related to organizational commitment for service SMEs, but not for manufacturing SMEs. While a participative leadership style did not moderate the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment in either industry, a directive leadership style strengthened the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment in manufacturing SMEs.

Leaders in the service industry SMEs should engage in transformational leadership, whereas leaders in manufacturing industry SMEs should engage in other types of leadership. Future research should examine effective leadership in manufacturing.

As the results of this study suggest, a distinction should be made between manufacturing and service industry. The advice therefore needs to be twofold. Supervisors in manufacturing SMEs can best improve employees’ organizational commitment by intensifying transformational leader behaviour combined with a directive decision style. Supervisors in service SMEs do not have to combine transformational leader behaviour with a particular leader decision style, if they wish to be more effective.

Demonstrating transformational leader behaviour can be successful in both manufacturing and service SMEs. However, in manufacturing companies this will only be effective when combined with a directive leader decision style.

Although SMEs most of the time are considered as one similar group in comparison to large organizations, the authors follow Hughes and Wood (1999; see also Stonehouse and Pemberton, 2002) who argue that because of their different products, customers, and labour it is important to disaggregate research on SMEs and differentiate between manufacturing and service SMEs.

Small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) continue to make a major contribution to the Australian economy. However, research into organisational processes within SMEs has been limited to date. This study aims to examine the links between communication processes and organisational effectiveness in SMEs.

This quantitative study uses social capital theory as a framework to investigate whether employees' level of satisfaction with organisational communication processes affects organisational outcomes within three high growth manufacturing SMEs in one area of Australia.

Results indicate that organisational communication processes does affect employees' levels of ambiguity regarding customers, job satisfaction and commitment to their firms.

While generalisability is limited because of the small number of SMEs participating in the study, the research indicates great potential for developing theoretical and practical insights into Australian SMEs that would assist industry and employees overall.

Implications for the growth strategies of SMEs, particularly in relation to the current skilled labour shortage, are discussed.

The paper contributes much needed theoretical development and research into SMEs.

Regardless of the noteworthy growth in research and practice associating corporate social responsibility (CSR) with human resource management, little has been written in regard to one major dimension of CSR in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as CSR policies and practices are directed toward employees. The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a conceptual framework connecting socially responsible human resource management (SRHRM) to competitive performance that fits small business.

In order to get empirical evidence, structural equation modeling technique was applied on the data from 481 Spanish SMEs.

Results confirm both the direct contribution of SRHRM to business competitiveness and the multiple effects resulting from including two variables of additional interest for the relationship under study: employee’s commitment and relational marketing.

One of the main research limitations is that the paper only reflects the perceptions of owners/managers of SMEs. Although it was believed that the respondents give reliable and accurate information about the way their firms are involved in CSR practices, there is a possibility that they might provide incorrect or incomplete information.

The relationships proposed have never been studied before in context of SMEs. This is a worthwhile endeavor, which makes an empirical contribution.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge on the underlying relation between trust, knowledge sharing (KS) and organizational commitment (OC) in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), by testing the mediator role of KS between trust and OC dimensions.

The paper addresses a sample of 582 top exporting Portuguese SMEs and it tests an original model using structural equation modeling following a partial least square approach.

Results show that trust positively and significantly influences KS and affective and normative OCs. KS partially mediates the relation between trust and affective OC.

This study contributes to both the knowledge management and human resource development literatures, showing the relationship between variables from both bodies of literature. Some limitations apply, the study uses cross-sectional data that limit the conclusions about causality and some restrictions on the generalization of the results also apply due to the used sample.

Results show the importance of encouraging a trustful environment in SMEs on behalf of KS and OC dimensions. Human resource managers could profit from stimulating KS among employees that results in affective OC.

Findings show the relevancy of trust in SMEs and the role of KS that contributes to OC.

This study aims to investigate the implementation of lean human resource management (HRM) practices in manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and explore how various factors interact to influence their successful adoption. By exploring the interplay among these factors, the research seeks to identify key drivers affecting the adoption of lean HRM in manufacturing SMEs. Ultimately, the research intends to provide insights that can guide organisations, practitioners and policymakers in effectively implementing lean HRM practices to enhance operational efficiency, workforce engagement and competitiveness within the manufacturing SME sector.

The study combined total interpretive structural modelling (TISM) and Matrice d'Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée à un Classement (MICMAC) analysis. TISM helped in understanding the hierarchical relationship among different factors influencing lean HRM implementation, whereas MICMAC analysis provided insights into the level of influence and dependence of each factor on others.

The research revealed that “top management support” emerged as the most independent factor, indicating that strong support from top management is crucial for initiating and sustaining lean HRM practices in manufacturing SMEs. On the other hand, “employee involvement and empowerment” was identified as the most dependent factor, suggesting that fostering a culture of employee engagement and empowerment greatly relies on the successful implementation of lean HRM practices.

While the study provided valuable insights, it has certain limitations. The research was conducted within the specific context of manufacturing SMEs, which might limit the generalizability of the findings to other industries. Expert opinions introduce subjectivity in data collection. Additionally, the study may not cover all critical factors, allowing room for further exploration in future research.

The findings have practical implications for manufacturing SMEs aiming to implement lean HRM practices. Recognising the pivotal role of top management support, organisations should invest in cultivating a strong leadership commitment to lean HRM initiatives. Furthermore, enhancing employee involvement and empowerment can lead to better adoption of lean HRM practices, resulting in improved operational efficiency and overall competitiveness.

This research contributes to the field by offering a comprehensive exploration of the interplay among factors influencing lean HRM implementation. The use of TISM and MICMAC analysis provides a unique perspective on the relationship dynamics between these factors, allowing for a nuanced understanding of their roles in the adoption of lean HRM practices in manufacturing SMEs. The identification of “top management support” as the most independent and “employee involvement and empowerment” as the most dependent factors adds original insights to the existing literature.