An Exploratory Study of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Partnership Programs for Empowering Small Medium Enterprise (SMEs)

CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) has grown rapidly over the past twenty years. Besides being based on social activities (charity), companies also develop CSR activities in the form of partnerships. The implementation of interdependence between the company and the community is realized in the form of a partnership between companies and CSR-targeted SMEs. This study aimed to determine the field of cooperation, patterns of cooperation and partnership mechanisms between companies and SMEs through CSR activities in East Java. The results illustrated that most corporations partner with SMEs in the field of production. The results can be used to create a model for the empowerment of SMEs through CSR activities by considering environmental, culture and economic conditions that affect the empowerment of SMEs. Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and partnerships, empowerment of SME