This book offers a global overview of the extant research on ethics in small and medium sized enterprises from major regions of the world. It presents research projects from a variety of countries that show both empirical and theoretical research in the area.

This book is the first of its kind a global overview of extant research on ethics in small and medium sized enterprises. While vast amounts of corporate money, government policy and media time are directed at the social and ethical activities of large corporations, small businesses don't generally attract the spotlight. This is wildly inappropriate, however, since upward of 90% of private businesses are small or medium sized. This book goes some way to helping us understand the social and ethical contribution of this majority organizational form. The first section of the book is a global round-up of research on ethics in small and medium sized enterprises from major regions of the world. In the second section smaller scale research projects from a variety of countries present both empirical and theoretical advances in the area. Anyone with an interest in ethics and small and medium sized enterprises should find this an inspiring book which paves the way for future research.

Provides regional overviews of Ethics in SMEs for Europe, Africa, Latin America, India, China and North America A unique illumination of ethics and CSR in small firms, contrasting significantly to the dominant large firm perspective Research-based chapters on specific regions and industrial contexts

Inhalt
Acknowlegements and Foreward.- 1.Introduction: Global perspectives on Ethics in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.- Global overviews.- 2. AFRICA: Ethics and sustainability within SMEs in sub-Saharan Africa: Enabling, constraining and contaminating relationships by Mollie Painter-Morland and Kris Dobie.- 3.EUROPE: Practice and Politics: Ethics and Social Responsibility in SMEs in the Europe Union by Laura J. Spence and Francesco Perrini.- 4. INDIA: CSR and Ethics in MSME's in India by Vasanthi Srinivasan.- 5. LATIN AMERICA: Ethics and CSR in Latin American SMEs: Challenging Development by Maria Cecilia Coutinho de Arruda.- 6. NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA: A New Zealand and Australian Overview of Ethics and Sustainability in SMEs by Eva Collins, Carolyn Dickie and Paull Weber.- 7. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: An Overview of Empirical Research on Ethics in Entrepreneurial Firms within the United States by Melissa S. Baucus and Philip L. Cochran.- Individual research.- Theory Development.- 8. Entrepreneurial social responsibility: Scoping the territory by Richard K. Blundel, Laura J. Spence and Stefania Zerbinati.- 9. A comprehensive model for SMEs: Measuring the dynamic interplay of morality, environment and management systems Towards continuous improvement by Jörg Bürgi.- 10. CSR and SMEs in Portugal: The strategy of obligation by Maria João Santos.- Empirical Research.- 11. In search of sustainability? SMEs in Brittany, France by Sarah Hudson and Julia Roloff.- 12. Corporate social responsibility and stakeholder relations - The Perspective of German small and medium-sized enterprises by Simone Klein and Kristin Vorbohle.- 13. The alignment between social responsibility and business strategy: Implications for social responsibility value creation in Spanish SMEs by Cristina Iturrioz, Cristina Aragón, Lorea Narvaiza and Asunción Ibañez.- 14. Business ethics and corporate social responsibility practice in small and medium sized enterprises: Samplingfrom Thailand and Hong Kong by David Bevan and Robert Wynne.- Case Examples.- 15. Fostering corporate social responsibility in small and medium size enterprises. Recent experiences in the Netherlands by Henk van Luijk and Lobke Vlaming.- 16. Small business social responsibility in the supply chain: A literature review by Francesco Ciliberti, Pierpaolo Pontrandolfo, Barbara Scozzi.- 17.Ethics in agricultural and stockbreeding SMEs: An Argentinean Case Study by Norma T. Jáuregui de Pivetta.- Conclusion.- Index.