Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Small and Medium Enterprises: Concepts, Cases, and Managerial Perspectives

Abstract

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share via Elgaronline, thanks to generous funding support from the European Commission, Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships for Higher Education funding, grant number 2023-1-FI01-KA220-HED-000166837, Project “Strengthening DEI in Education and SME Management” (DEI4SME). This book advances the central thesis that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are integral to the strategic management and everyday realities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), even if managers and employees may not explicitly use DEI terminology. Addressing long-standing critiques of DEI scholarship, the book explains why conventional DEI frameworks often feel inaccessible, irrelevant, or overly complex for resource-constrained SMEs.