The complexity of stakeholder pressures and their influence on social and environmental responsibilities

By applying the stakeholder theory and institutional theory approach, this study aimed to develop a more refined understanding of primary and secondary stakeholder pressure by considering social and environmental responsibility, the role of barriers to adoption as a mediator, and the differences of firm size on social businesses. This research shows that social and environmental values are recognised not as a standard euphemism i.e., as Corporate Social Responsibility would consider but as two separate concepts weighing on different objectives, yet both are recognised as part of their society on which they would thrive. Both primary and secondary stakeholder pressure was analysed separately. A sample of 286 social businesses from Bangladesh was recruited for this study. Structural Equation Modelling and non-parametric tests were used to analyse the data. The findings show that all hypotheses were significant but except for the primary stakeholder influences having a negative relationship with barriers to adoption. The direct effect of both primary stakeholders and secondary stakeholder on social responsibility are significant. The beta values for secondary stakeholders were slightly higher than primary stakeholders. While primary stakeholders had an indirect effect on environmental responsibility, secondary stakeholders' influence on environmental responsibility was found significant. Barriers to adoption mediate between stakeholder pressure and social and environmental responsibility. There were also significant differences in social business firm size. The research contributes to making two significant contributions to the literature on social business which has been rarely explored. One, it offers a more nuanced perspective of the stakeholder theory by demonstrating the determinants of institutional theory's social and environmental responsibility. Two, it identifies firm size matters for sustainability responsibility and operations.