University of Tokyo

Abstract
Survey Number 0633
Survey Title Fact-finding Survey on Small Companies' Contributions to the Local Community, 2008
Depositor Japan Finance Corporation Research Institute
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Educational Purpose Only available for research.
Period of Data Use Permission One year
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Summary Recently, questions have been raised about corporate social responsibility (CSR) at large corporations. Small companies are members of local communities, and both serve as part of the foundation of those communities and have a responsibility toward them. One way in which this manifests is local contribution activities. However, the local contribution activities of small companies, unlike the CSR of large corporations, have a meaning beyond simple local community obligation. This is because bettering local communities may lead to improved business conditions.

Small companies play an economic role through their business operations such as responding to the diverse needs of consumers in small markets untouched by large corporations. Simultaneously, their non-economic contributions to local communities include hosting traditional events and providing opportunities for work experience and various other non-business activities, but the actual situation is not known. Therefore, this survey was conducted to understand how small companies contribute to local communities and thereby uncover the characteristics of companies involved in local-community contribution activities and how local-community contribution activities provide opportunities to stimulate business.

Furthermore, in tandem with this survey, an Internet questionnaire survey of employers and an interview survey of business managers were conducted.

In this survey, as shown below, local-community contribution-related activities are broadly divided six ways, and furthermore, are each subdivided into a total of 31 items including “other” defined as local-community contribution activities.

(1) Economic stimulus-related activities (stimulation of local industry/revitalization of shopping districts/utilization of specialty products, agricultural, forest and fishery products, and other local resources/ support entrepreneurship and other companies’ management/other)
(2) Culture/environment-related activities (hosting and maintenance of festivals and traditional events/local culture and sports promotion/local beautification and greening/local environmental conservation/other)
(3) Education-related activities (economic, financial, and consumer education/entrepreneur education/providing work experience and internships/other)
(4) Employment-related activities (elderly hiring and employment support/disabled person hiring and employment support/NEET and freeter (part-timer) hiring and employment support/homeless hiring and employment support/former convict hiring and employment support/foreign worker hiring and employment support/other)
(5) Security, safety and disaster prevention-related activities (crime prevention activities/traffic safety activities/firefighting and disaster prevention activities/other)
(6) Health, medicine, and welfare-related activities (elderly living support/disabled person living support/poor and homeless support/food security/childcare support/other)
Data Type quantitative research
quantitative research: micro data
Universe 10,000 companies financed by National Life Finance Corporation (today’s Japan Finance Corporation) in October 2007
Unit of Observation Organization
Sample Size Number of responses: 3,065 (response rate: 30.7%)
Date of Collection 2008-05-01 ~ 2008-05-01
2008/05/01
Time Period 2008 ~ 2008
Spatial Unit
Sampling Procedure Probability: Simple random
10,000 randomly selected companies that have fully repaid financing from National Life Finance Corporation (today’s Japan Finance Corporation) as agreed in October 2007
Mode of Data Collection Self-administered questionnaire: Paper
Mail survey (anonymous questionnaire was anonymous)
Investigator Japan Finance Corporation Research Institute
DOI 10.34500/SSJDA.0633
Sponsors (Funds)
Related Publications (by the Investigator) Please refer to the abstract in Japanese.
Related Publications (based on Secondary Analysis) List of related publications (based on Secondary Analysis)
Documentation [Questionnaire]
Major Survey Items (1) Overview of the company and manager
Company form, previous year’s sales, sales trends, number of employees, trends in number of employees, profitability, main locations of business offices (population size, increase and decrease of population, aging), organizations with which company is affiliated, number of previous managers plus respondent, age and gender of manager, status of successor selection

(2) Relationship between the company and community
Local contribution activities that the company is involved in (31 items)/relationship to activities/year activity started, activities with greatest commitment, activities that company is considering to get involved in the future, activities that company wants to quit if possible, reasons for wanting to quit the activities, reasons for starting activities with greatest commitment, present status of activities with greatest commitment, results of activities with greatest commitment

(3) Relationship between the manager and community
Local contribution activities that the manager is personally involved in (31 items)/relationship to activities/year activity started, activities with greatest commitment (individual), form of activities, form of corporation/union, reasons for starting activities with greatest commitment (individual), present status of activities with greatest commitment (individual), whether respondent receives remuneration from activities with greatest commitment, main funding sources of activities with greatest commitment, results of activities with greatest commitment (individual), activities that respondent is considering to get involved in the future (individual), activities respondent wants to quit if possible (individual), reasons for wanting to quit activities (individual)

(4) For respondent who is not involved in activities either as individual or through the company
Reasons for not being involved in local contribution activities, intention to get involved in the future
Date of Release 2010/03/02
Topics in CESSDA Click here for details

Community, urban and rural life
Social behaviour and attitudes
Business/industrial management and organisation
Topics in SSJDA Economy/Industry/Management
Society/Culture
Security/Crime/Disaster
Version 1 : 2010-03-02
Notes for Users