Territorial Social Responsibility and Territorial Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Territorial social responsibility is a form of gov- 16 ernance cultivated through the diffusion of CSR 17 (Corporate Social Responsibility) and sustain- 18 ability-oriented strategies which are promoted 19 by networks of local actors – public and private, 20 for and nonprofit (institutions, trade union asso- 21 ciations, universities, chambers of commerce, 22 businesses, nonprofit organizations, foundations, 23 banks, professional orders, civil society) – who 24 come from the same territory and whose policies 25 are oriented toward sustainable development. 26 When there is a common aim to improve the 27 quality of life that ties together individuals and 28 organizations belonging to the same territory, it ispossible to introduce the notion of territorial 29 social responsibility, founded on the rediscovery 30 of shared values that the territory’s economic, 31 social, and institutional stakeholders know how 32 to reinforce, thanks to solid networks of relation- 33 ships. This approach can be applied in specific 34 social and economic contexts where all local 35 actors have absorbed a common culture that 36 spreads in mutual values. The concept of culture 37 reminds to beliefs, norms, traditions, and 38 attitudes that drive the behavior of individuals 39 and organizations belonging to a definite 40 community. 41 SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) 42 play a primary role in promoting pathways of 43 territorial social responsibility, thanks to their 44 rootedness in and their strong relationships with, 45 the local community. Small entrepreneurs are 46 often active members of the territorial commu- 47 nity to which they are linked, representing its 48 “creative soul,” and reinvesting their energy and 49 part of the economic wealth they generate. SMEs 50 deeply embedded to their respective territories 51 are characterized by long-term, established 52 mechanisms and rules. The values at the base of 53 their strategic orientation are not only linked to 54 the personal attributes of their entrepreneurs and 55managers, but, being profoundly rooted in local 56 contexts, are also connected to anthropological 57 factors (historical, social, and cultural) typical 58 of the local environment, characterized by the 59 presence of a specific social capital. 60 SMEs who cultivate a distinctive relationship 61 with the socioeconomic environment – that is, 62who are genuinely rooted in their surrounding 64 territory and whose sustainable development is 65 connected to the local context in which they are 66 inserted – can be defined as territorial companies. 67 Territorial companies are important protago- 68 nists in the construction of networks that are 69 constituted by a plurality of actors with 70 whom they enter into relationships, utilizing the 71 exemplary social cohesion that characterizes the 72 local contexts (city, province, and region) in 73 which they operate. In this way, they activate 74 (or support) paths of social responsibility 75 and sustainability inside the community and the 76 surrounding territory that are not always exclu- 77 sively local but often extend themselves into the 78 national and international contexts