- Title
- Influence of demographic variables on sustainability in regional Australian SMEs
- Creator
- Courvisanos, Jerry; Nayak, Ravi; Salimzadeh, Parisa
- Date
- 2015
- Type
- Text; Conference paper
- Identifier
- http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/161199
- Identifier
- vital:12361
- Abstract
- Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the economy of Regional Australia.They are significant regional development agents contributing to the increased productivity and the improved quality of local life.However,global warming and unethical social behavioursare increasingly being attributed to commercial activity. While, large businesses have accepted the need to adopt sustainability in their management process, SMEs have not paid enough attention to the sustainability issues in their management strategies.There are some demographic variables which are affectingthe adoption on sustainable practices by SMEs. This paper investigates the effects of fourdemographic variables (business size, business category, owners/managers’ experienceand educationallevel) on the sustainability adoption by SMEs in a regional context.One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse the survey data from 233 SMEs in the regional city of Ballarat which is located in Western Victoria, Australia.Findings reveal that business size and owners/managers’ education have a significant impact on the adoption of socially responsible practices.This paper contributes to the investigation of impacting variables on sustainable business development within SMEs, highlighting significant implications for both theory and practice in the context of a non-metropolitan urban setting.
- Relation
- Proceedings of the Australasian Conference on Business and Social Sciences
- Rights
- © 2015 Australian Academy of Business and Social Sciences
- Rights
- This metadata is freely available under a CCO license
- Subject
- SMEs; Regional Australia; Sustainability; ANOVA
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