Mainstreaming CSR among SMEs in the Baltic States

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• Mainstreaming CSR among SMEs in the Baltic States
• Estonia Study Methodology, Protocol and Results

Pierre Blime, PW Partners AS, Estonia
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CSR in the Baltic States Project Overview

• CSR Baltic Mainstreaming Corporate
  Responsibility among SMEs in Baltics
  Measurement, Dissemination, Awareness
• Project Co-financed by the EU Directorate for
  Enterprises
• Project Lead Latvian Chamber of Commerce and
  Industry
• Project Coordinator in Estonia PW Partners AS
• Project Partners Estonia
• Responsible Enterprise Forum (VEF)
  http//www.csr.ee
• PR firm Alfa-Omega
• Project Supporters Estonia
• Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KODA)
• Enterprise Estonia (EAS)

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Study Methodology
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• Study Protocol

• 2500 SMEs contacted to participate to online
  survey
• Via Partners
• Via email campaign
• Via Press Releases
• Via Calling Support Campaigns
• 500 SMEs participated
• 50 SMEs selected for in-depth interviews
• Good sampling representation of Estonian SMEs

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Results Status of CSR
Have you implemented a CSR action?

• 35.4 of SMEs surveyed believe to have
  implemented a CSR action
• Average history of SMEs in implementing CSR 3
  years

For How Many Years?
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• Results Nature of CSR

Are those CSR implemented measures...?
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Results Obstacles to CSR
What would be the main resaon not to take a CSR
action?

• 81 cite limited ressource constraints and the
  fact that legal requirements are already a burden
• 38.2 admit not to be familar enough with the
  concept and lacking better uderstanding on how it
  works
• 13 believe it is not worth it.

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• Results Perceived CSR Utility

• CSR is understood as a tool to strenghten
• Customer loyalty, either directly (via recognized
  actions by a SME) or indirectly (via brand
  recognition associated with actions which is
  surprising in the world of SMEs)
• Employees lenght of stay (a major economic issue
  in Estonia)
• The sustainability of the enterprise.
• CSR is well understood as a long-term growth
  factor, and not a short-term one and that it is
  by no mean an attraction to investors, which does
  create problems as soon as ownerships
  concentration is diversified

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Results CSR Directions

• Priorities of eventual CSR actions
• Employees
• Environment
• Community via local hiring of employees
• Not a priority
• Participate to local infrastructure
• Sponsor local events

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Results CSR vs. Management
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Results Return on CSR
What was the Return on your CSR action?

• 57.6 of Estonian companies having implemented
  CSR recognize a positive return
• Less than 1 admit of a negative effect
• 17 recognize a media effect that may be an
  intermediate step to reach managerial goals

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• Research Conclusions

• CSR is fairly recent and not yet understood among
  Baltic States enterprises
• CSR implementation today is timely in the Baltic
  States, at this late stage of capitalist
  maturation, when
• Consumer awareness is on the rise
• Life of communities is threatened by
  dellocalization of production
• There is a high migration level of young and
  qualified workforce
• Environmental issues are taking more importance

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• Research Conclusions (2)

• CSR is perceived as a strong tool to resolve
  Baltic enterprises problem number 1 acquisition
  and retention of qualified workforce
• Many Baltic SMEs are actually doing CSR
  intuitively, without having identified it as such
  nor having understood the full scope of returns
  from it.
• Many Baltic SMEs are being very creative in their
  adoption of CSR

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Estonia CSR Best Practice Competition Awards

• CSR Best Practice Awards in Estonia
• Best SME CSR 2007
• Best SME Society and Community Impact CSR 2007
• Best SME Business Sustainability CSR 2007
• Best SME Environmental CSR 2007

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• Questions?
• Thank You!
• Aitäh!

• Pierre Blime
• PW Partners AS
• www.pwp.ee
• Tel [phone]
• Pierre_at_pwp.ee