The hidden sustainability practices of SMEs: Toward a grassroots ESG framework

This study explores how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies enact sustainability through everyday practices that remain invisible in mainstream environmental, social, and governance (ESG) frameworks. Current standards, designed for large firms, create structural biases that exclude SMEs from sustainability assessments and financing. Drawing on translation theory, practice theory, and vernacularization, the article proposes the grassroots ESG framework, conceptualizing ESG as a bottom-up, adaptive process embedded in local cultural and operational logics. Based on a qualitative multiple-case study of 10 Tunisian SMEs in agriculture, textiles, crafts, and food production, findings reveal three clusters of grassroots ESG practices: frugal environmental stewardship, community-based social engagement, and trust-based governance. These practices reflect culturally rooted responses to resource scarcity and institutional voids. The study extends ESG theorization by showing how SMEs reinterpret global norms and offers policy pathways—such as proportional indicators and inclusive financing—to bridge global frameworks with local SME realities.