To Örebro University

Most studies of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have focused on the organisational level, while the individual level of analysis has been treated as a ‘black box’ when researching antecedents of CSR engagement or disengagement. This article offers insights into a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) that is recognised as a pioneer in CSR. Although the extant literature suggests that the owner-manager is crucial in the implementation of CSR, this study reveals that employees drive CSR. The employees in the focal firm voluntarily joined forces based on their shared perception of moral responsibility for CSR and they developed strict targets to be achieved by 2030. Despite their strong ethical and moral perspective when enacting CSR, they disengaged from their moral responsibility for CSR in various contexts. This paper contributes to the theory of moral decoupling by uncovering a novel context of disengagement—‘visionary procrastination’. Visionary procrastination is suggested to be a particularly relevant context of disengagement when individuals perceive moral responsibility for CSR. Moreover, by delivering insights into the antecedents of employee-initiated CSR on the organisational level, this study adds to the growing body of literature on the micro-foundations of CSR.

Employees are not only recipients of corporate social responsibility (CSR) but can take an active role in its development. Thus, it is suggested that employees can be analytically understood as norm entrepreneurs. Norm entrepreneurs are actors with the desire for shaping new standards of appropriateness as well as actively persuading others to adopt these. The potential role of employees who wish to enact new standards of responsibility within CSR is thus relevant to study. More specifically, employee agency in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) might be especially pertaining, as these are usually flatly organised. The study draws on qualitative case study data, conducted at a SME that is a recognised CSR leader in the apparel industry. It uncovers employees' activities that are designed to persuade their organisational stakeholders to adapt their new standards of responsibility within CSR. The article offers two novel contributions into the micro-foundations of CSR - contesting and transparency - by opening the black box of organisational micro-foundations, such as employees' day-to-day activities.

Employees are not only recipients of corporate social responsibility (CSR) but can take an active role in its development. Thus, it is suggested that employees can be analytically understood as norm entrepreneurs. Norm entrepreneurs are actors with the desire for shaping new standards of appropriateness as well as actively persuading others to adopt these. The potential role of employees who wish to enact new standards of responsibility within CSR is thus relevant to study. More specifically, employee agency in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) might be especially pertaining, as these are usually flatly organised. The study draws on qualitative case study data, conducted at a SME that is a recognised CSR leader in the apparel industry. It uncovers employees' activities that are designed to persuade their organisational stakeholders to adapt their new standards of responsibility within CSR. The article offers two novel contributions into the micro-foundations of CSR - contesting and transparency - by opening the black box of organisational micro-foundations, such as employees' day-to-day activities.

Businesses often refer to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) when asked about their responsibilities toward society. In this view, CSR includes social, environmental, and economic responsibilities, of which the latter is prevalently prioritised. The larger the organisation, the greater public scrutiny and external pressure exist to affect and control such tasks. It remains vague, however, how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) navigate their responsibilities since these are less visible to the public eye. Hence, it may not be surprising that the literature about CSR in SMEs is fragmented and prevalently refers to two extremes: SMEs as forward-thinking actors or SMEs as lacking CSR. This thesis sheds light upon how SMEs organise CSR by endorsing organising as a process of social construction and, thereby, focusing upon micro-foundations of CSR. This unveils specific organising mechanisms on the individual level (i.e. the employee) and on the organisational level (i.e. the SME). Based upon three case studies in the Swedish apparel industry, it is determined that organising CSR is not necessarily dictated by the owner-manager’s ideas and ideals; instead, employees are the ones who propel CSR. These employees exhibit moral motives for CSR as well as demonstrate entrepreneurial spirit by instrumentalising SME peculiarities and, therewith, contribute to shaping their organisational environments’ social and environmental responsibilities

The premise of this article is that the development CSR in SMEs is differently conditioned than in larger companies, and therefore deserves scholarly attention. We need to better understand the process behind the formation of CSR in SMEs. Which social forces are at play when determining which morals and beliefs that will become dominant in the pursuit of CSR? The development of CSR in SMEs may, thereby, be viewed as a socialization process where ideas are developed and routinized in ongoing interactions amongst key individuals. Hence, the aim of this study is to unravel the mechanisms by which CSR in SMEs are developed and how they can gain foothold within the companies.

There are manifold social sustainability issues in global supply chains (GSC), the question is whether digital-training can address them. For a long time, auditing, compliance and monitoring have been seen as key in solving labour right violations. Yet, little improvement has happened. More participative methods of auditing and training have therefore been proposed in order to remedy this situation. The purpose of this paper is to explore how workers are trained on their labour rights with a digital-training method. We present an in-depth case study of a digitalising labour rights training through a new-to-the-world training method aimed at reaching factory workers in the GSC context. The digital-training method is custom-designed in an application. It aims at encouraging and stimulating learning-processes, as well as at retaining knowledge on relevant labour right topics, guided by the local needs of the worker. We find that this digital-training method has indeed potential to revolutionise common issues encountered by traditional corporate-self regulation tools in GSCs. However, potential barriers, such as the accessibility for the worker and willingness of the factory management remain.