Projects per year
Abstract
Businesses that promote corporate social responsibility (CSR) through their supply chain by requiring their suppliers to report on and otherwise communicate their CSR are doing a great thing, aren’t they? In this article we challenge this assumption by focusing on the impact on small and medium sized enterprise (SME) suppliers when their large customers pressurise them to make their implicit CSR communication more explicit. We expose a ‘dark side’ to assumed improvements in CSR reporting within a supply chain. We present a conceptual framework that draws on previous research on communication constitutes organization theory, implicit and explicit CSR, and Foucault’s governmentality. We identify and discuss the implications of three resulting dilemmas faced by SMEs: authenticity commercialization, values control, and identity disruption. The overarching contribution of our paper is to extend theorizing on CSR communication and conceptual research on CSR in SME suppliers (small business social responsibility). From a practice and policy perspective, it is not ultimately clear that promoting CSR reporting among SMEs will necessarily improve socially responsible practice.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1920-1947 |
Number of pages | 28 |
Journal | Human Relations |
Volume | 72 |
Issue number | 12 |
Early online date | 24 Jan 2019 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Dec 2019 |
Keywords
- Authenticity
- CCO
- communication constitutes organization
- corporate social responsibility
- CSR
- CSR communication
- identity
- governmentality
- small business
- small business social responsibility
- SMEs
- supply chain
- values
- explicit CSR
- implicit CSR
Projects
- 1 Finished
Activities
- 2 Invited talk
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Talking or Being: Dilemmas between explicit and implicit CSR communication
Laura Spence (Invited speaker)
19 Sept 2019Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
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SMEs: how to widen uptake of the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights
Laura Spence (Speaker)
3 Apr 2019Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Prizes
-
Finalist: Best article in Human Relations 2019
Spence, Laura (Recipient) & Morsing, Mette (Recipient), 2020
Prize: Other distinction