Volume 5 • Issue 3 • 1000225 Review Pub Administration Manag, an open access journal ISSN: 2315-7844 Review Article OMICS International Review of Public Administration and Management R e v i e w o f P u b l i c A d m i n i s tr a t io n an d M a n a g e m en t ISSN: 2315-7844 Mohamed et al., Review Pub Administration Manag 2017, 5:3 DOI: 10.4172/2315-7844.1000225 The Determinants of the Social Responsibility of Family SMES in Tunisia Soufeljil Mohamed 1 , Mighri Zouhayer 2* and Belloumi Mounir 2 1 Department of Economics, ISG Sousse, Tunisia, North Africa 2 Department of Economics, University of Sfax, Tunisia, North Africa 3 Department of Economics, Najran University, Tunisia, North Africa Abstract This paper aims to study the impact of the characteristics of family SMES on the strategy of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) family. The review of literature shows that the social network has a positive, but low effect on the social responsibility of business. However, conservatism has a negative effect on social responsibility of business. Age of the company has a positive effect on the social responsibility of business. The data have been collected from 141 Tunisian familial and non- familial businesses in 2012. The results obtained allow to highlight the role of social network in the adoption of the strategy of social responsibility within the family business. Similarly, the results have shown that the variable conservatism with a negative impact is statistically signifcant on CSR through the variable Knowledge of CSR. Finally, age of the company has no signifcant impact on CSR strategy. Keywords: Social network; Age of the company; Conservatism; Cor- porate social responsibility; Family SMES Introduction Although there is no consensus on the defnition of corporate social responsibility (CSR), some researchers like Baker defned it as the way in which frms manage their business processes in order to produce an overall positive impact on society. Te essential characteristic of CSR is the willingness of an organization to integrate the social and environmental dimensions in its decision making and to account for the efects of its decisions and activities on society and the environment (ISO 2010). According to the universal standards, CSR covers philanthropic activities and work practices, human rights, the environment, consumer protection and the fght against fraud and corruption. Te majority of previous researches have shown that the impact of the characteristics of family business on CSR is low. In fact, the social network has a positive impact on CSR, whereas conservatism has a negative impact on it. Finally, age of the company has a positive infuence on this variable. Te scarcity of research in this area gives our study a considerable importance. Te objective of our research is to review the impact of the characteristics of the family SMES on the adoption of the principles of CSR. Te execution of this work will lead to a double contribution. Te frst lies in the choice of the sample. In fact, the study will be carried out in the context of the emerging countries (Tunisia). Te analysis of the social responsibility of small and medium family business in the context of Tunisia is proving to be very attractive given the considerable role that plays small family business in the national economy. Previous studies have been carried out generally in the context of developed countries. Te second is to integrate explicitly direct measures for latent variables on the occasion of the study of the impact of characteristics of family SMES on the social responsibility of business. Te objective of this article is to study the impact of the characteristics of family SMES through the concept of knowledge of CSR. Our general questioning revolves around the following question: What is the impact of age of the company, of conservatism and of social network on CSR. Our research claims to analyze the infuence of the characteristics of family SMES on the decision adopting CSR approach. To do this, we will use the method of structural equations (LISREL) on a sample of Tunisian businesses that operate in the region of Sousse, in order to validate our proposals. Te principal components analysis (ACP) and the confrmatory factor analysis will be used to clean our scale of measurement, and to validate our variables. Tis article is structured in the following way. Section 2 outlines the review of literature and research hypotheses. Section 3 deals with methodological choice. Section 4 presents the results and their discussions. Te last section presents the conclusion. A Summary of Teoretical Literature Te review of literature on the determinants of social responsibility of family business shows that there are several factors that encourage the adoption of an approach of CSR. Our research will highlight the role of the characteristics of small family business to know (the social network, age of business and conservatism) in the adoption of CSR. Te relationship between the characteristics of family business and corporate social responsibility has been studied by researchers in developed countries. However, no unanimity on the infuence of its characteristics was detected in the present topic. Recent previous studies have identifed three main characteristics of small family business for the explanation of the relationship between the characteristics of small family business and adoption of the principles of CSR. Te frst characteristic is the social network of family SMES. Te second characteristic is conservatism of family business. Te third characteristic is age of the company. *Corresponding author: Mighri Zouhayer, Department of Economics, LARTIGE, FSEG Sfax Tunisia, street of Airport, 4.5 km, LP 1088, Sfax 3018, Tunisia, North Africa, Tel: + (216) 97 900 023, E-mail: Mighrizouhair@gmail.com Received September 09, 2016; Accepted October 09, 2017; Published October 13, 2017 Citation: Mohamed S, Zouhayer M, Mounir B (2017) The Determinants of the Social Responsibility of Family SMES in Tunisia. Review Pub Administration Manag 5: 225. doi:10.4172/2315-7844.1000225 Copyright: © 2017 Mohamed S, et al. 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