Testing the Effectiveness of CSR Dimensions for Small Business Entrepreneurs

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

A) I suggest to include a new topic in your paper, about CSR dimension - as brief literature review (new topic 2.3.). I suggest to INCLUDE the following 'new' papers, especially the papers from 2016-2019 :-) (all of these papers are top papers in SSCI & Scopus journals):

1. Bernardi, C. & Stark, A. W. (2018). Environmental, social and governance disclosure, integrated reporting, and the accuracy of analyst forecasts. British Accounting Review, 50 (1), 16-31.
2. De Villiers, C. & Maroun, W. (2018). Introduction to sustainability accounting and integrated reporting. Sustainability accounting and integrated reporting, 1 (12), 1-12.
3. Dropulić, I. & Čular, M. (2019). The effect of corporate social disclosure practice on reporting quality: Evidence from the insurance sector in Croatia. Management: journal of contemporary management issues, 24(2), 23-38.
4. Haniffa, R. & Cooke, T.E. (2005). The impact of culture and governance on corporate social reporting. Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 24, 391-430.
5. Herbohn, K., Walker, J., & Loo, H. Y. M. (2014). Corporate social responsibility: The link between sustainability disclosure and sustainability performance. Abacus, 50(4), 422-459.
6. Lee, K.-W. & Yeo, G. (2016). The association between integrated reporting and firm valuation. Review of Quantitative Finance & Accounting, 47 (4), 1221-1250.
7. Mousa, G. & Hassan, N. T. (2015). Legitimacy theory and environmental practices: Short notes. International Journal of Business and Statistical Analysis, 2(1), 41-53.
8. Pisani, N., Kourula, A., Kolk, A., & Meijer, R. (2017). How global is international CSR research? Insights and recommendations from a systematic review. Journal of World Business, 52(5), 591-614.
9. Sotorrío, L.L. & Sánchez, J.L.F. (2010). Corporate social reporting for different audiences: the case of multinational corporations in Spain. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 17, 272-283.
10. Spence, C., Husillos, J. & Correa-Ruiz, C. (2010). Cargo cult science and the death of politics: A critical review of social and environmental accounting research. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 21(1), 76-89.
11. Stolowy, H. & Paugam, L. (2018). The expansion of non-financial reporting: an exploratory study, Accounting and Business Research, 48(5), 525-548.
12. Tschopp, D. & Nastanski, M. (2014). The harmonization and convergence of corporate social responsibility reporting standards. Journal of Business Ethics, 125(1), 147-162.
13. Zhou, S., Simnett, R. & Green, W. (2017). Does integrated reporting matter to the capital market? Abacus, 53 (1), 94-132.

B) Please explain, why you decide to use Cement factory. Is there are any specific element in this industry?

C) In Abstract, you write: The number of respondents was 250 SMEs, with a response rate of 92 9 respondents ... it's not clear what is your SAMPLE. 

D) Use this paper in explain Legitimacy theory:

1. Mousa, G. & Hassan, N. T. (2015). Legitimacy theory and environmental practices: Short notes. International Journal of Business and Statistical Analysis, 2(1), 41-53.

E) It is necessary to explain, why you use Carroll concept? It's OLD concept ... 1999? Ok, if you use it, you need to explain specific part of this concept.

F) Topic 5 is not Discussion - Topic 5 is Empirical results of factor analysis

G) If you used factor analysis, can you include in your paper - model summary?

Good luck :-)

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Authors,

Thank You for the opportunity of reading this article. My general opinion about the article is positive. 

General statements about the article

-> the article concerns the problem of the  CSR dimension effectiveness of SMEs. This topic is actual and desirable

-> article suite to Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity journal scope.

-> Literature background is sufficient. It's based on 65 literature positions. The majority of them are older than 5 years.

-> Abstract is well written and includes all needed information.

-> structure of the article is correct. 

-> quality of figures and tables is high. 

-> The good part of the article is the discussion part. Conclusions are clearly written. Also, limitations and future studies are indicated.

 

I will recommend publishing this article after minor revision which consists of:

#1
In the introduction, the contribution of this article must be clearly indicated. Indicated half of the paragraph in lines 69-72) is not sufficient. So please add a paragraph with the contribution of the paper.

#2
Also please add a short description of the article at the end of the introduction. I mean please add in the form “Section 2 is a literature review, … Section 3 concerns … etc.”

#3

The article concerns 65 literature positions. But I think it would be vulnerable to add 2-3 references from 2019-2020 to show what is recent studies in this area.

#4
The caption of figures 1 and 2 should be under figures.

#5
Please add doi for the articles in the literature review. Actually, it's strongly recommended to add doi in references. So please add to improve the quality of references.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

attached

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 3 Report

Minimally revised. Still not crossing the bar. see attached report.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 3

Reviewer 3 Report

Congrats.