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To Whom Do Business Owner-Managers Feel Responsible? Weighting conflicting social responsibilities in Rwanda

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Abstract

In lower-income countries, owner-managers of small businesses take on heavy social responsibilities toward members of their extended family. However, using business resources to answer family needs can harm business, hence contradict broader responsibilities toward business stakeholders and society at large. In contexts where jobs are scarce and unemployment means deep poverty, this conundrum often translates into an ethical choice between recruiting needy relatives or avoid nepotism. To study such ethically loaded recruitment decisions, I adopt a stakeholder salience perspective. Focusing on Rwanda, a small East African country, I use interview data to examine how owner-managers articulate their social responsibilities toward family and toward other stakeholders, and how this influences recruitment. I observe that owner-managers either nest, balance, or separate social responsibilities toward family and nonfamily stakeholders and preferentially recruit relatives or strangers accordingly. This study suggests that stakeholder salience depends on a process of stakeholder categorization, which is influenced by the cultural and political context.

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Notes

  1. In Rwanda, small businesses are firms that count fewer than 100 employees and make less than 50 million Rwandan franks turnover (~ 50 000€ or US$).

  2. In the European Union, small businesses have up to 250 permanent employees and €50 million turnover; in China, construction firms are considered small up to ~ $50 million turnover.

  3. Approximately $45.

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Acknowledgements

At the moment of publishing my very first paper, my warmest acknowledgements go to associate editor Pr. Roloff and three anonymous reviewers who helped me transform my manuscript into a proper article—I often felt they were part of the team rather than evaluating my work; to my wonderful colleagues from BSB, whose friendly support and insightful advice enabled me to work efficiently in the last few month; and of course my Rwandan informants, who spent hours explaining me their intimate concerns.

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Funding was provided by ESSEC Foundation.

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  1. CEREN EA 7477, Burgundy School of Business, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Dijon, France

    Bruno Noisette

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  1. Bruno Noisette
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Correspondence to Bruno Noisette.

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Conflict of interest

This research has been funded by the ESSEC Foundation. It has been approved by the National Council for Science and Technology of Rwanda and the Research Ethics Committee of ESSEC Business School. No financial or non-financial conflict of interest has been identified.

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Noisette, B. To Whom Do Business Owner-Managers Feel Responsible? Weighting conflicting social responsibilities in Rwanda. J Bus Ethics 190, 531–552 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-023-05421-0

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