How environmentally sustainable SME Business Strategies affect Shareholder Profits within a Liberal Market Economy

Master's Thesis from the year 2017 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, University of Birmingham (Birmingham Business School), course: Masters in Business Administration, language: English, abstract: The main aim of this empirical research study is to assess the implications for shareholder returns both short term and long term in a liberal market economy when SME's put in place or develop their Corporate Social Responsibility agenda and in turn develop a sustainable environmentally positive business strategy. It was not long ago that we thought that the world's resources were never ending and the short term view was that better business and greater profit was gained by learning how to harvest and manipulate those resources whatever the consequences. Little thought was given to the environmental impact that our activities were having on the planet. Companies are there to make a profit for their shareholders and the company share price must be protected at all costs, whatever the cost. Increasingly companies understand that rather than finding new ways to exploit the planet, companies and populations need to find new ways to grow in a sustainable way and protect the planet's resources. Corporate Social responsibility is one of the most important business developments to happen over the last 40yrs. Starting in the 1970's, the idea that a business could cease to do harm to its environment and community and instead put in strategies to limit its impact upon the world and still make a profit, was radical, but with the benefit of hindsight seems like a natural evolution. Integrating CRS into a business comes with its own set of unique problems though and the aims of this work are to assess the short term and long term viability and impact both negative and positive on short and long term profits for the shareholders of small and medium-sized enterprises adopting a sustainable and environmentally positive business strategy within the scope of a Liberal Market Economy. Some emphasis will also be on the CSR activities and shareholder returns relating to the environmentally damaging, SME Textile industry.