Abstract

This paper aims to examine the main Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) dimensions in order to provide a preliminary representation of the several perspectives of study dealt by the literature. Subsequently, for each CSR dimension, a proposition is suggested, which highlights the most critical issues emerging from the literature. Such propositions summarize the main characteristics of CSR dimensions and could be useful for further future studies. Similar approach is applied in the second part of the paper, which is focused on the relationship between CSR and the family business and suggest propositions addressed to some peculiarities of CSR and family business, such as: (a) the association between family ownership and community-related CSR performance and (b) the association between family ownership and the employee-related CSR performance.

Key words: Corporate social responsibility, family business, corporate social responsibility performance, environment, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).