Seminar Report: CSR, Social Media, and Ethical Considerations for SMEs

This report examines the multifaceted relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), social media, and ethical considerations within the context of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It explores the importance of social media and CSR, their impact on SMEs, and the challenges they pose. The report delves into the concept of Global Sustainable Development (GSD) and its link to CSR, analyzing its significance for SMEs and the obstacles faced. Furthermore, it addresses whistleblowing and workplace ethics, assessing their influence and potential conflicts. Finally, the report discusses various approaches to CSR and their implications for SMEs, offering insights into effective strategies and difficulties. This report provides a comprehensive overview of these crucial business aspects, supporting sustainable growth and ethical practices.

Questions For
Seminars

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
SEMINAR 1.....................................................................................................................................4
Social media and Corporate social responsibility............................................................................4
1.What do you understand by Social media and Corporate social Responsibility?...................4
2. The importance and impact of social media in SME..............................................................4
3. The difficulty of social media in SME....................................................................................5
SEMINAR 2.....................................................................................................................................6
CSR and Global Sustainable Development.....................................................................................6
1. Define Global sustainable development?................................................................................6
2. What is the linkage between CSR and Global Sustainable development?.............................6
3. Importance and impact of GSD to SME?...............................................................................6
4. Challenges of GSD to SME?...................................................................................................7
SEMINAR 3.....................................................................................................................................7
Whistle Blowing and Workplace ethics...........................................................................................7
1.what is whistle blowing?..........................................................................................................7
2. What is workplace ethics ?......................................................................................................7
3. How does whistle blowing impact in the workplace ethics?..................................................7
4. Conflicts of Whistle blowing in the workplace?.....................................................................8
SEMINAR 4.....................................................................................................................................8
Can we have effective world approaches to CSR............................................................................8
1.Tell us about the Approaches to CSR?....................................................................................8
2.Importance of CSR world approaches and how its impact SME?...........................................8
3. Difficulties in the worlds approaches to CSR impacting SME?.............................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
.......................................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Social media is termed as the most crucial component in the today's era as this involves
all the websites and application which have been developed and design to allow all the people
share their content quickly,efficiently in the real time. These are common web-based
communication tool that allow every individual to interact with each other and share the
information in an effective manner. Whereas the Corporate social responsibility is the term
which renders a company with a sense of responsibility towards the community and environment
either be it social or ecological in which its operates it operations. Both these concepts are vital
for the small medium enterprises as this would leas these businesses to the higher level of growth
and sustainable position in the market place. This chosen report has been documented in regard
to cover certain concept , impact, approaches which social media and Corporate social
responsibility fosters on small and medium size enterprises.
SEMINAR 1
Social media and Corporate social responsibility
1.What do you understand by Social media and Corporate social Responsibility?
Social media is world wide used phenomenon as this has enable the working of business
to a very smooth manner. The term social media is computer based technology which ease the
sharing of ideas, thoughts, content and information through the creation of the virtual network
and communities. Social media in the current scenarios is termed as the most powerful scenarios
that has the ability to connect and share information with each and every individual across the
world. For instance: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are some of the social media application that
allow interacting people with each other on earth(Social media , 2019).
Corporate social responsibility is refers to as the concepts which suggests that it is the
accountability of the business operating inside the society to impart towards the economical,
social and environment improvement which renders positive impact on the society. This concept
not only focuses on the earning of society but also emphasizes on the contribution of the

economic development. CSR are mainly concerned with the identification of the best fit process
which will be beneficial for the business as well as the society so that a position of the
sustainability of the economy can be maintained in a effective manner. For instance: Make
socially and environmentally conscious investment(Corporate social responsibility, 2019).
2. The importance and impact of social media in SME.
Social media plays a vital role in the small and medium enterprises as this will enable the
business to build their brand image overnight without costing them much for the advertisement.
Moreover it will also allow the business of small and medium size enterprises to understand their
customers and their needs so that business can easily manufacture products as per the customers
expectations. Using social media will also support business in their development of the
customers base by attracting new customers towards the business.Social media also have positive
impact on the small and medium enterprises such as :
a) Social media allows keeping an eye on competition- This will allow the business to
keep an eye on the changing strategies of the other competitors which they find through the
information available on the social media . This information will allow small and medium size
enterprises to formulate better strategies than competitors so that they can easily compete and
earn higher market position.
b) Social media has supported the business to reach out to a bigger and wider range
of audience- With the support of the social media the business can easily reach out to the large
number of audience by promoting their product on social media through posting pictures,
influencers etc. so that brand loyalty and image can be increased in the customers mind.
3. The difficulty of social media in SME.
There are number of challenges which the small business have to face in the context of social
media such as:
 Which social media platform to choose in order to advertise about your brand- this
is the prime function which is to be performed here in this it is very essential for the
business to choose the right platform to advertise their brand and its products, if the
chosen platform turned out to be the failure than the business has to undergo a
problem(Wamba and Carter, 2016).
 How does these social media works or function- every social media functions
differently so it is crucial work for the business to select and see that how does their

chosen social media platform will work so that they can easily advertise their product by
posting pictures of the product with right content.
 What should be post and what not on the platform of the social media- This is the
vital function which every business have to perform and they face problem in doing so
that what should be post and which product will have great impact on the audience.
SEMINAR 2
CSR and Global Sustainable Development
1. Define Global sustainable development?
Global sustainable development is refers to as the term which involves development that
meet the requirement of the current without compromising the future needs of the generation at
national and international level. This concepts in also known as the concept of universal call to
end up the poverty level so that every individual within the society can get full satisfaction. For
instance- solar energy and wind energy so that energies can be saved for the future generation to
meet their own needs(Whiting and Williams, 2013).
2. What is the linkage between CSR and Global Sustainable development?
Both the concept of CSR and Global sustainable development are distinct but related to
each other. CSR is refers to has the action of the companies towards the charity for the
development of the economy which will lead the population with increase living standard due to
which the economic condition will be sustained towards growth and lead to the global
sustainable development of the economy.
3. Importance and impact of GSD to SME?
Global sustainable development is essential for the small medium organisation as this
will provide the business with the risk lenses so that they can easily find out what are the risk
which the business has to deal with in near future. This will also help the business to utilise all
their resources in such a manner so that if in case there is a scare resources available to the
business they can utilise the resources which have been sustained through these global
sustainable development. Various positive impact which the global sustainable development
have on small medium enterprises are:

 This provides small business with the decent work and economic growth of their firm in
the competitive market by rendering them to explore their business.
 This will also support small businesses in their responsible consumption and production
so that business can attain a sustainable position in the market place(Oguamanam, 2015).
4. Challenges of GSD to SME?
Some of the challenges of global sustainable development to the small and medium sized
enterprises are as mentioned under:
 Challenges faced due to the natural occurrence such as earthquake, tsunami etc. all these
may reduce the chances of the business that is small size in operating their business in a
effective manner as this may threat their business position.
 Lack availability of the financial resources to the small business which impact and
challenges the successful functioning of the sustainable development of the economy at
the global level.
SEMINAR 3
Whistle Blowing and Workplace ethics
1.what is whistle blowing?
Whistle blowing is act where a person raise his or her voice against the unethical
activities which are carried out within the organisation. And the person who raises his voice
against this unethical activity is known as whistle blower. This in general term is also known as
the act of drawing attention of a public. For example- employees reporting corruption,
discrimination, fraud etc(Orazi and et. al., 2018).
2. What is workplace ethics ?
Workplace ethics in general term refers to as the morale and all those principle which
guides person's actions in the workplace. These workplace ethics not only consists of how one
feels about their job but also focuses on the individuals, roles and responsibilities which they
need to perform in regard to the completion of the job. These workplace ethics are intrinsic these
come from within not by teaching. For example- ethics in purchasing, working habits of the
individual, ethics in sales etc.

3. How does whistle blowing impact in the workplace ethics?
The positive impact of the whistle blowing within the workplace is huge as this will
enable all the employees within the business association to work in a effective manner as if the
policy of the whistle blowing within the business will let all the employees to raise their voice
against any kind of fraud and discrimination due to which a strong relation between the worker
will be build and this will increase the business productivity and efficiency level. For instance-
suppose a worker within the business raises their voice against every unethical code of conduct
then by seeing this all the other worker of the competitors will try to switch that particular
organisation where this policy of whistle blowing is there so that they can easily maintain a
workplace environment friendly and works positively(Vandekerckhove, 2016).
4. Conflicts of Whistle blowing in the workplace?
There may be number of conflicts which may arise due to the whistle blowing in the workplace
such as :
 Trust issues may arise within the association as whistle blowing is mainly concerned with
the raising of voice against any wrong doing so the worker within the firm may feel that
the employers of the organisation are not trustable any more..
 their may be decreased level of the efficiency to work within the organisation as once the
whistle blowers raises the voice against any of the unlawful activity this may lower the
morale of other employees to work and lead to decrease in the efficiency.
SEMINAR 4
Can we have effective world approaches to CSR
1.Tell us about the Approaches to CSR?
There are major 3 approaches to CSR such as Philanthropic,Community and creating
shared value approach. Philanthropic approach is mainly concerned with the contribution
towards a cause and provides advantages to the cause so that business goals can be achieve.
These cause may involves causes like donation, charitable cause etc. Along with this community
cause is the one which focuses on the providing support to the organisation, events which are
performed at the local level so that it renders huge positive impact for a long lasting time. And at
last, creating shared value approach is the most important strategy for developing and
strengthening the future position of the economy(Mitonga-Monga, Flotman and Cilliers, 2016).

2.Importance of CSR world approaches and how its impact SME?
All these approaches of the CSR will enable the business association with maintenance of
the healthy relationship among all its stake holders along with the employees. These approaches
will also supports the business in forming their polices and procedures so that these can easily
contribute to economical, social and environmental development. All these approaches have a
huge impact on the small and medium sized enterprises such as – this will allow the small and
medium enterprises in their increment in the sales margin by lowering of the operating cost. This
will also allow the business to enhance their customer loyalty and skills to attract employees as
well as customers.
3. Difficulties in the worlds approaches to CSR impacting SME?
The small and medium sized enterprises have to face huge difficulties in implementing
CSR such as lack of finance available to implement CSR approaches within the business as these
involves huge amount of capital to be invested along with this the another challenge impacting
SME was inadequate backing from the government as well as some non government
organisation. The company of Network critical solution which is situated in the UK economy
also have face some of the difficulties while implementing these CSR within their business such
as the problem related to the lack of awareness to the employees about the concept of CSR and
lack of support from the customers and investors of the business(Cheng, Ioannou and Serafeim,
2014).

CONCLUSION
From the above written document it can be summarised that all these concepts within the
business of small and medium enterprises plays a vital role so that they can easily sustain in the
competitive environment. Along with this the concept of workplace ethics and whistle blowing
will also lead the small sized association to the level of growth and development as through these
employees can raise their voice for the wrong doing which will support business in operating
their operations in effective manner.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Wamba, S. F. and Carter, L., 2016. Social media tools adoption and use by SMEs: An empirical
study. In Social media and Networking: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and
applications(pp. 791-806). IGI Global.
Whiting, A. and Williams, D., 2013. Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications
approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal. 16(4). pp.362-369.
Oguamanam, C., 2015. Sustainable development in the era of bioenergy and agricultural land
grab. International Environmental Law and the Global South (S. Alam, S. Atapattu, CG
Gonzalez & J. Razzaque, eds., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015).
Orazi, G. and et. al., 2018, June. A First Step Toward an IoT Network Dedicated to The
Sustainable Developement of a Territory. In 2018 Global Internet of Things Summit
(GioTS) .(pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Vandekerckhove, W., 2016. Whistleblowing and organizational social responsibility: A global
assessment. Routledge.
Mitonga-Monga, J., Flotman, A. P. and Cilliers, F., 2016. Workplace ethics culture and work
engagement: The mediating effect of ethical leadership in a developing world
context.Journal of Psychology in Africa. 26(4). pp.326-333.
Cheng, B., Ioannou, I. and Serafeim, G., 2014. Corporate social responsibility and access to
finance. Strategic management journal. 35(1). pp.1-23.
ONLINE
Social media , 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media.asp>.
Corporate social responsibility, 2019. [Online]. Available
Through:<https://www.fiinovation.co.in/corporate-social-responsibility/>.