ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an overview of the general differences between small businesses and large enterprises. It demonstrates how Small business social responsibility (SBSR) is different from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in terms of governance, approach to the business case, the language used, key stakeholders, the importance of trust, networks and social capital and the tools used in managing social responsibility. The chapter proposes a model that could help to systematically formalize small business social responsibility for those practitioners wishing to engage with social responsibility more explicitly. According to T. Brytting, small businesses can be differentiated from large enterprises based on two characteristics: small-scale decentralization and flat organizational hierarchy. Contemporary research on SBSR tends to cast a more positive light on these special features, reflecting on the relative advantages of small business. The chapter explores the implications of the small business difference for social responsibility.
