The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurs’ personal values and corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientations among small- and medium-sized enterprises in a developing country, Zambia.
Data were collected through questionnaires. Two linear regression models were used to test the hypotheses.
Self-transcendence values have a significant positive influence on socially oriented CSR but do not influence environmentally oriented CSR. Self-enhancement values do not affect social and environmental CSR orientations. Conservation values have a marginally positive influence on environmentally oriented CSR but no influence on socially oriented CSR. Finally, openness to change has a significant positive influence on environmentally orientated CSR but no influence on socially oriented CSR.
The limitations of this study relates to the sector from which the sample was drawn, other predictors of CSR orientations, use of cross-sectional data, and the replication of this study to validate its findings.
The findings inform policy-makers, scholars, educators, and regulators on the importance of aligning personal values with environmental and social concerns, thereby influencing entrepreneurs’ CSR orientations for the well-being of society and the natural environment.
This paper shows the influence of personal values on CSR orientations among entrepreneurs in a hardly researched Sub-Saharan Africa country.
