Abstract:

Purpose – Corporate social responsibility (CSR)-based strategies have become important concepts in dealing with firm´s stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the strategic implications of stakeholder approach with case of Czech SMEs

Design/methodology/approach - The research methodology is consistent with descriptive stakeholder theory, which seeks to outline participants’ views of what the business organization is doing vis-a-vis its stakeholders. The target group for the study were SMEs operating in the Czech Republic. The research hypothesis was derived and tested in the context of the corresponding CSR literature and conducted research. We used the process of in-depth questioning and in the survey was included 229 Czech SMEs.

Findings - Our findings suggest that Czech SMEs seem to prioritize their stakeholders based on stakeholder approach. The results of the research suggest that Czech SMEs seem to be according systematic attention to a limited number of stakeholders as reflected in the differential higher scores in relation to three core stakeholders namely customers, employees and suppliers respectively.

Originality/value – the main contribution of this paper derives application of stakeholder approach and the identification of key stakeholders, which have an impact on CSR activities namely in the Czech Republic.