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3 J. Mgmt. & Sustainability 1 (2013)

handle is hein.journals/jms3 and id is 1 raw text is: Journal of Management and Sustainability; Vol. 3, No. 1; 2013 ISSN 1925-4725 E-ISSN 1925-4733 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education Intent to be a Socially Responsible Small or Medium-sized Enterprise: Theory of Planned Behavior and Leaders' Actualizing Ashley J. Bennington1 & Marcel C. Minutolo2 Department of Management & Marketing, College of Business Administration, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Kingsville, Texas, United States 'Department of Management, Robert Morris University, Moon Township, Pennsylvania, United States Correspondence: Ashley J. Bennington, Management & Marketing, College of Business Administration, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Kingsville, Texas, United States. E-mail: Ashley.Bennington tttamuk.edu Received: June 18, 2012 Accepted: July 26, 2012 Online Published: October 9, 2012 doi: 10.5539/jms.v3nlp1 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/jms.v3nlpl Abstract A review of the academic research in corporate social responsibility shows little work on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the U.S. whereas considerable work in this domain has been conducted in the European context. This study seeks to make a contribution to the research void by addressing one particular area of social responsibility in the U.S. context. Specifically, we employ Ajzen's reasoned action approach to begin to build an understanding of what promotes leaders of SMEs to reduce waste. This study addresses several questions: What are the attitudes of owners and managers of SMEs toward waste reduction practices for their organizations? How are stakeholder interests toward waste reduction perceived? And, are leaders of SMEs influenced by their industrial environment? The authors utilized an email survey directed to owners and managers of SMEs with greater than 5, but less than 500 employees in the telephony, construction, pulp and paper products, textiles, and agriculture industries. 377 emails were opened and 104 completed surveys were obtained. The survey instrument was developed from the theoretical perspective of Isaac Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 50, p. 179-211. Results from a partial least squares analysis of the data suggest that there is a strong and significant relationship between the normative, attitudinal, and control constructs with an individual's intention to be a socially responsible SME. This finding suggests that efforts to influence SME owners and managers to implement waste reduction activities need focus on changing individual attitudes. Keywords: social responsibility, waste reduction, leadership, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), theory of planned behavior 1. Introduction Waste is a social problem. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, despite increasing rates of recycling, total municipal waste in 2010 was 250 million tons (Environmental Protection Agency 2011). Waste is a business problem because it contributes to the total cost of goods in terms of heating and cooling, trash removal, and defects to name only a few of the areas. Given the impact on the bottom-line, why are there not more organizations attempting to control the total level of waste. Companies like Interface have demonstrated an ability to both reduce the total levels of waste and use at least a portion of the production byproduct as an input into the production function (Anderson 2009). The rationale for why other organizations are not as proactive in the reduction of waste may lay in the fact that the true cost of the waste is an externality to the firm; the marginal returns of reducing the current levels of waste are lower than the marginal costs; or, it may just be due to a perception that there is no value in the effort at all. For those organizations that are not actively pursuing additional levels of waste reduction, then, incentives whether through penalties or through rewards need to be applied in order to influence the behavior. In order to influence the behavior, society needs to understand the perceived sources that influence the intent for the leadership of the organization to act in a socially responsible way. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an ill-defined concept (Siyaranamual 2009), that, on one hand, emphasizes minimal harm to the external environment, but on the other hand, obligates organizations, small and large, to maximize the welfare of society through their corporate undertakings (Husted & Allen 2011). Strategic

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