Sustainability Management and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Managers' Awareness and Implementation of Innovative Tools

With the intention of integrating environmental and social practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a growing body of research proposes the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental management tools. Collectively referred to as sustainability management tools in this paper, voluntary management approaches range from environmental and social audits, indicators, and management systems, to reporting schemes and stakeholder dialogues. While the adoption of such management tools in SMEs has been increasingly anticipated in the academic literature, the rates of awareness and implementation for these management tools are missing. Furthermore, the connections between awareness and implementation remain under-researched. Using a framework for innovation diffusion, the results from a web-based survey with 176 German SME managers investigate these connections. Rogers' model is particularly useful to identify managerial and organizational characteristics that might explain why particular SMEs are more likely to adopt sustainability management tools.