Analyzing network effects of Corporate Social Responsibility implementation in food small and medium enterprises

Building on a literature review and an illustration with a concrete example, the goal of this article is to propose an analytical framework of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) implementation in food small and medium enterprises (SMEs) putting forward the issue of network effects. Indeed innovation networks and networking activities, as in any innovation process, are major means to enhance and foster CSR in SMEs, but the interests and concrete consequences of the network perspective for innovation capacity enhancement are rarely addressed. To do so we suggest considering CSR implementation as a type of managerial innovation and define by analogical reasoning the main categories of network effects found in the literature. From these, three critical dimensions of network effects are identified: structural, interactive and cognitive, each of them affecting specific dimensions of the innovation process. This analytical framework is synthesized and adapted for CSR implementation and then applied to a case study of a food SME involved in a collective initiative in France, putting in evidence these effects. Finally some managerial implications and concluding comments are drawn.