Abstract
Corporate volunteering sits at the intersection of human resource management, corporate social responsibility and the social dimension of environmental, social and governance (ESG) practice. Yet its contribution to employee retention in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly among junior employees, remains theoretically fragmented and empirically under-specified. This paper develops an integrative framework linking corporate volunteering design to work meaningfulness, organizational identification, perceived organizational support, psychological-need satisfaction, affective commitment and intention to stay. The structured integrative review and documentary ESG analysis are complemented by a descriptive secondary-data component covering 2021-2025. Eurostat indicators show that Romania remained below the EU-27 in the employment rate of recent graduates and above the EU-27 in the NEET rate throughout the period, while European Commission SAFE results show that the share of surveyed firms ranking the availability of skilled staff or experienced managers as their most important problem remained high, easing from 27% in 2021 to 24% in 2025 after peaking at 29% in 2023. These data provide labour-market and human-capital context rather than a direct test of the volunteering-retention relationship. The main contribution is a mechanism-based ESG framework that connects volunteering design, employee interpretation and retention theory while identifying observable contextual constraints relevant to SMEs.
Cuvinte cheie
corporate volunteering
employee retention
SMEs
ESG
junior employees.
Istoric articol
Publicat
31.08.2026
Informații autori
Citare recomandată
Carmen-Valentina Rădulescu, Cornelius Seciu, Liviu Purcărea (2026). Corporate Volunteering and Junior Employee Retention in SMEs: An ESG Perspective. Constantin Brâncuși University of Târgu Jiu Economics Series, 2(1), 727–741. https://doi.org/10.65631/jes.4.2026.68
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