THE PARTICIPATION OF INTEREST GROUPS AS INSTRUMENT OF SOCIAL CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY. THE CASE OF THE SMALL AND MEDIUM FAMILY ENTERPRISES

In this paper we analyze the characteristics of stakeholder engagement in small and mediumsized family enterprises (SMFEs). The paper aims to understand the reason, the meaning and the manner to involve stakeholders in this kind of firm. The stakeholder engagement has been linked with corporate social responsibility, stating that firm that take initiatives to engage its stakeholders can be described as socially responsible. This claim is not always acceptable because we have to understand when the different forms of stakeholder engagement are consistent with the concept of corporate social responsibility. The focus in SMFEs is justified, on the one hand, for its specific characteristics and on the other hand, because in the SMEFs the reasons to implement stakeholder engagement are very different from those of larger firms. We believe useful to reflect upon the different forms of involvement because we cannot automatically apply to SMFEs the same patterns and theoretical approaches used for large firms.