Responsible Entrepreneurship: A Collection of Good Practice Cases among Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises across Europe

The 25 good practice cases in this brochure aim to illustrate responsible entrepreneurship among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Europe.

They are examples of ‘good’ rather than ‘best’ practice since the selection was made to illustrate diversity in terms of the different countries, sectors of activity and size classes represented in the brochure. Identifying 'best practice’ implies a competitive process or benchmarking exercise that clearly would have gone beyond the scope and remit of this project. Besides, differences in cultural and legal backgrounds in Europe make cross-country comparisons difficult if not impossible. The regulatory framework in each country determines the scope for company action to go beyond legal thresholds. But societal expectations as to what constitutes responsible business behaviour may also vary widely depending on history, culture, the level of socioeconomic development and the respective roles of the State and private sectors in society. What is an innovative responsible entrepreneurship practice in one country may be regarded as ‘mere’ legal compliance or ‘business as usual’ in another. Each case therefore has to be judged on its own merits and needs to be set in its particular national, regional or even local context.