BUSINESS ETHICS AND CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ATTITUDES AMONG SME LEADERS IN ROMANIA

This paper investigates current current trends in attitudes towards business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) among a sample of Romanian SMEs leaders (SMEs less than _ 2 million yearly revenue and less than 250 employees). A select sample of items drawn from the Attitude towards Business Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ) and Attitudes towards Corporate Social Responsibility Questionnaire (ATCSRQ) along with other demographic and cultural questions were fielded during the summer of 2014. Eleven items were selected from the ATBEQ and 10 from the ATCSRQ. The resultant sample size of 413 is analyzed in order to record the level of ethics and CSR attitudes among a sample of Romanian SME leaders in order to direct future research on improving ethical and CSR attitudes in the Romanian business community. Results show strong overall support for positive attitudes toward business ethical and corporate social responsibility. Exceptions include a 41% agreement that competition creates difficulties in making ethical decisions and 60% neutral and agreement that companies that ignore CSR can attain a competitive advantage. We conclude that although business ethical and CSR attitudes are high among this sample, the perception of implementation is one of challenges and pessimism.