The Innovative Approach to the Evaluation of the Social Responsible Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

Abstract

Understanding social responsibility importance pushes businesses to assume not only the behaviour of law-abidingness but also to carry the voluntary participation in the implementation of corporate contribution to the development of the community and the territory and establishing social partnership relations with the state. However, it should be noted that no aspects of social responsibility have been analysed appropriately. In particular, some authors pointed out that it is necessary to increase the number of studies related to the social responsibility perception of small and medium enterprises because these companies often lack a clear understanding and conscious recognition of socially responsible importance. Such a situation has motivated the authors to do research in this area. The food service sector was chosen for an investigation in Ukraine, Portugal, and Slovakia. The purpose of the paper is to find out the most important factors that influence the socially responsible perception of small and medium-sized enterprises among food service enterprises in Ukraine, Portugal, and Slovakia from the viewpoint of the economic pillar. Primary data were collected by conducting a questionnaire survey of Ukraine, Portuguese, and Slovak small and medium-sized enterprises working in the food sector. The research was conducted in selected cities of each country (Portugal: Lisbon, Porto, Faro; Slovakia: Bratislava, Nitra, Košice, and Ukraine: Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa). The city selection could be explained by the fact that the before-mentioned cities are the most visited ones in the selected countries. The study received 107 answers from Ukraine, 102 from Portugal, and 101 from Slovakia. Statistical analysis was performed by using IBM SPSS software and MS Excel. It could be concluded that the research describes that the company's financial situation has the most significant influence on its performance. In addition, enterprises with a short-term existence display better social responsibility performance. The results have several practical implications for organisations' policymakers. Results showed that adopting the socially responsible concept greatly depends on the company's financial situation. However, several socially responsible activities are neutral concerning the costs. The companies could focus on collaboration with other small and medium-sized enterprises, getting involved in community service activities and collaboration with nonprofit organisations, charity camps organisation, team building activities, organisation of masterclasses for children, resources donation, and reuse activities.