AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
of 47 questions and a final sample was 607 respondents (n=607)
(Gáborová, 2020).
This contribution aims to look closer at this issue. Goal is to
verify the implications of previous study and see if the outcome
would be different – if indeed implementation of pre-defined
metrics, usually with the purpose of detailed and extensive
reporting and regular conducting of CSR activities do
significantly influence the relationship of innovativeness and
CSR of SMEs.
H2: Correlation between innovativeness of SME and conducting
CSR activities is low.
The goal of confirming the second hypothesis is to prove that
innovative SME can demonstrate high CSR engagement also
without having to conduct specific CSR activities, mostly with
the purpose to mitigate the impacts of their business operations
on either environment or social impacts on the community where
the enterprise operates. Moreover, confirming H2 is supposed to
demonstrate the need of the CSR to be included in the strategy
and that a successful and innovative enterprise has socially
responsible way of doing business incorporated into their nature
– core values and business strategy.
H3: There is no need for innovative SME to apply specific CSR
policies in order to have high CSR engagement.
Companies tend to apply various policies with regards to CSR
such as anti-corruption policies, procurement policies or
implementing code of conducts. Confirming H3 is supposed to
show that for innovative SMEs with CSR incorporated in their
business strategy, implementing special CSR policies can be
obsolete.
Figure 1 Illustration of hypothesis development
Source: author`s own
3 Methodology of research
Getting reliable and trustworthy information on both CSR and
innovation is not easy. In SMEs, it is even more problematic as
they are not disclosing such a level of information as large
companies do. For this reason, questionnaire survey was chosen
as the most feasible method of collecting empirical data. For
sure, surveys have its limitations, such as non-response,
insufficient knowledge of the studied subject by respondents,
clarity of questions, cultural differences of respondents in
researched countries, truthfulness or relevance of the
respondent`s answers. However, despite these limitations,
questionnaire survey has been considered as the most
appropriate method of data collection for the purpose of this
study.
3.1 Questionnaire
Questionnaire consisted of 47 questions divided into four main
sections. Section A – General (subject identification, questions
1- 5), section B – Innovation (questions 6 – 21), section C – CSR
(questions 22 – 44) and section D – Enterprise maturity
(questions 45 - 47). Section B, C and D (all questions besides
subject identification questions) were measured by Likert scale
with five points, namely: 1 strongly disagree, 2 disagree, 3
neutral, 4 agree, 5 strongly agree.
Questionnaire attempts to cover all important topics on
innovation, CSR and enterprise maturity so that the collected
data are able to provide clear and structured input that can be
further statistically evaluated.
3.2 Sample selection and data collection
Validity of the questionnaire was tested in a pilot study on a
sample of 30 respondents (randomly selected from all three
countries) that were excluded from the final sample. After the
initial quality test of the questionnaire, only minor changes were
done.
Questionnaire was distributed to the managers of randomly
selected SMEs in three selected CEE countries – Austria, Czech
Republic and Slovakia. Final sample consisted of 607 responses
(n=607).
Table 2 Structure of respondents (n=607)
Country
S
m
al
l en
terp
ri
ses
(10-49 employees
)
Perc
entage (%)
Med
iu
m
en
terp
ri
ses
(50
-
249 employees)
Perc
entage (%)
Sam
p
le
si
ze/
cou
n
try
Austria
143
70.79
59
29.21
202
Czech
Republic
140
69.31
62
30.69
202
Slovakia
145
71.43
58
28.57
203
Total
428
70.51
179
29.49
607
Source: author`s own
Responses were collected during the six months period between
January and June 2019. Survey has been targeted at small to
medium enterprises. Due to insufficient complexity of CSR
activities necessary for the purposes of this research, micro
enterprises with 0 to 9 employees were excluded.
As for the structure of respondents in terms of industry, nearly
all industries were covered (based on NACE coding), however,
vast majority came from the manufacturing field, wholesale and
retail, trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles and
information and communication industries.
Table 3 Structure of respondents - industry
Industry
Percentage of
respondents
AT
Percentage of
respondents
CZ
Percentage of
respondents SK
Manufacturing
22.8%
22.3%
25.1%
Wholesale and retail
trade; repair of
motor vehicles and
motorcycles
20.3%
20.8%
24.1%
Information and
communication
12.9%
11.4%
13.3%
Source: Gáborová, 2020
3.3 Statistical Analysis of empirical data
In order to statistically evaluate empirical data structural
equation modelling (SEM) was used. This technique was chosen
as a method of analysis of structural relationships between pre-
set variables and constructs. It offers certain level of flexibility
that was necessary for the purposes of this article – to test the
suggested model (Hooper, et al. 2008; Kline, 2005).
Statistical analysis of collected empirical data from three
countries of CEE region was processed in R software
environment.
4 Results and Discussion
In order to validate three stated hypotheses, structural model was
created and evaluated. Structural model was built based on the
questionnaire, specifically on questions from sections B, C and
D, as section A primarily serves for subject identification. The
same model is used for statistical evaluation of empirical data in
all three researched countries – Austria (AT), Czech Republic
(CZ) and Slovakia (SK).
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