Small Business Leadership, Peacebuilding, and Citizen Perceptions of Businesses as Peacebuilders: Theory and Evidence from Colombia

Businesses are increasingly engaged in confronting grand societal challenges, including peace positive action in conflict and violence-affected communities. Yet we know little about why business leaders engage in peace, or how citizens perceive business contributions towards peace. These gaps are particularly acute for small business scholarship. Addressing this, this article considers how SME leaders view their peace-positive actions and how these are perceived by communities using two primary surveys in Colombia. We find that small business leaders that supported their communities with peace actions saw their businesses perform better and held more positive views of the benefits of engagement. Further, citizen perceptions of businesses contributions to peace declined where insecurity increased, and improved where businesses – and in particular MSMEs – engaged more in their communities. We discuss how these findings can expand theory on SME leadership in fragile contexts, and inform perspectives on the role of the private sector in conflict spaces.