중소기업의 사회책임경영(CSR)이 경영활동과 기업성과에 미치는 영향

Generally, the social responsibilities of corporations are divided into economic, legal, ethical, and charitable responsibilities. Originally, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) placed emphasis on ethical responsibility, but the rise of the concept of sustainability from the 2000s had an immense impact on industrial profits, business survival and growth. Discontinuing past perspectives centered simply on the right and responsibility to offer protection, a new emphasis was placed on social responsibility viewed from more strategic angles. CSR is variously defined depending on the scholar's or institution's objectives. But Carroll's 1979 model is the most generally accepted, and recently CSR is being consolidated and comprehended by a Social Responsibility Business Certification System (ISO26000). Deleting the “C” (Corporate) from CSR, the International Standardization Organization is creating a certification system that includes all social responsibilities applicable not only to industries but to organizations. It is defining CSR as a balanced approach with which to handle objectives beneficial to the economic, social and environmental problems of people, regions, communities and societies. Results of the survey conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries targeting 350 large Korean industries showed that industries that have introduced ethical guidelines have grown to 93.5% in 2007, compared to 62.0% in 2005. Also, expenditures for social contribution activities by domestic industries have surpassed 1 trillion KRW in 2002, showing steady two-digit increases and above annually, while SRI (Socially Responsible Investing) funds invested in industries engaged in CSR activities are rapidly growing both domestically and abroad. But contributions and other CSR activities by domestic small and medium-sized firms remain few. This shows a great difference from the U.S., where CSR activities are vigorous, so much that the US Chamber of Commerce published a survey of CSR companies made up of 5 members or less. This is because small and medium-sized firms have not set up adequate strategies for CSR. If small and medium-sized firms engage in activities for the local society, they could garner a reputation in the region and open up opportunities for business expansion in their own country and internationally. Because small and medium-sized firms differ from large firms in terms of industrial environment and scale, it is highly likely that they differ in CSR activities, as well. Therefore, a necessary stance for elevating CSR levels of small and medium-sized firms includes not only actual studies, but also a grasp of how CSR activities impact business activities and industrial performance. CSR studies conducted to date have been limited to the relationship between social responsibilities such as ethical responsibilities and the performance of firms. And most have taken place in North America and Europe. Most studies on CSR deal simply with the effectiveness of the CSR activities themselves. But understandings of concrete dimensions like economic, legal, ethical and charitable responsibilities, and substantial analyses of the mechanisms between CSR activities and the performance of firms have largely been disregarded. Based on the related theories and existing studies of CSR, this study attempts to address the following research objectives. First, substantial analyses of CSR activities by small and medium-sized firms in the Daegu region were carried out for the purpose of comparing them to those of large firms. Second, it attempts to analyze the influences of CSR activities on their primary business activities like human resources, marketing, production, and technological innovation at small and medium-sized firms. This gives us an understanding of the importance to SMEs of using CSR activities in a strategic manner. Finally, instead of analyzing the simple relations between CSR of small and medium-sized firms and firms' performance, this study analyzed these relations controlling the endogeneity which may exist. In so doing, it provides an opportunity to study the mechanisms operating between CSR activities by small and medium-sized firms and their performance. For the purpose of this study, we conducted a questionnaire-based survey of department managers, middle-managers, and staffs at 530 small and medium-sized firms in the Daegu region. Eventually, the survey data of 203 firms were collected after eliminating questionnaires with perfunctory or unreliable responses. CSR activities were measured in the CEO's mind and systemic implementation for ethical management, equal opportunity hiring, labor-management relations, customer relations, environment, etc. Business activities were divided into the fields of human resources for optimal business performance, differential marketing, production management for top effectiveness, and innovative technology capability and measured using a 5-point scale. To measure firms' performance, the ratio of net income to net sales and the return on total asset (ROE) were employed as measurement variables based on average over a 2-year period. The control variables such as number of years in operation, firm size, whether or not they were a venture company or manufacturing company, and stock ownership rates of the CEO were used in the multiple regression models. Major results are follows. First, it was found that just like large firms, the number of regional small and medium-sized firms that also understand the necessity and justifiability of CSR activities are currently expanding. But, firm size and the CEO seems to limit possibilities for CSR activities. Second, CSR activities, which positively influence business activities, appear as determination to carry out ethical business practices, ethical business systems, and activities related to labor-management relations and customer relations. CSR activities on different types of business activities were shown to be different. Third, unlike the palpable effects of CSR activities on business activities, neither consistently positive results for firms' performance nor moderating effects for business practices were found. Finally, even using 2SLS (two-stage least squares) did not reveal a significant relationship between CSR activities by small and medium-sized firms and the performance of the firms. We could not find substantial evidence that the CSR activities of small and medium-sized firms effect the performance of the firms. But measurement indexes for CSR effectiveness are being developed for big companies and participants in the capital market are utilizing those measurement indexes, making decisions pertaining to their investments and producing systemic devices for officially assessing company values. Therefore, this type of study must be continued in the future. There were several limitations to the carrying out of this study. Because the subjects of analysis were limited to small and medium-sized firms in the Daegu region, the results cannot be applied to small and medium-sized firms as a whole. Second, the variables for CSR activities used in this study could not consider the totality of CSR activities. Third, there was also a limitation in its inability to adequately reflect theoretical bases and structural relations in respect to relations between the differing variables. Therefore, future studies must seek to overcome the limitations of this research.