Corporate social responsibility: engaging the community

Abstract

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: ENGAGING WITH COMMUNITY AbstractPurpose: This paper extends corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory by exploring how firms engage with community. The community is frequently cited as a stakeholder of the firm but in spite of its status in networks has not been the focus of research. Drawing on community theory and Carroll's pyramid for the foundation of our study, we undertake an empirical investigation to advance knowledge in CSR engagement with a particular stakeholder group.Design/methodology/approach: To generate in-depth insight, the study adopts a multiple case study approach involving the purposeful selection of three retail banks in Ghana as units of analysis. It draws on multiple data sources to strengthen its findings. Findings:The study finds that community engagement consists of four spheres of activity:donations, employee voluntarism, projects and partnerships. Philanthropy forms part of largely ad hoc CSR actions by firms. The study also finds that philanthropy is not merely a desired function of the CSR pyramid but an essential one. Social implications:This research imparts increased understanding of how firms engage with an important but frequently overlooked stakeholder group -community. Originality/value: This study presents specific theoretical extensions to CSR through its identification of four core activities of community engagement.Keywords: stakeholder network, corporate social responsibility, community, philanthropy, retail banking.Paper type: Research paper. IntroductionStakeholder theory states that a firm can enhance its corporate strategy by recognizing and addressing the complexity of understanding the roles and interactions of firms and stakeholders (Freeman, 1997). Debates on stakeholder theory also draw on the role of social responsibility (for example Greenwood and Van Buren, 2010), in particular where stakeholder network expectations inform a normative framework of social responsibility (Maignan, Ferrell and Ferrell 2005). For this reason, several researchers assess that engagement with stakeholders and different kinds of communities will impact on the firm (Luoma-aho and Paloviita, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to investigate how CSR strategies inform engagement with community. We find that firm CSR strategies consist of five specific spheres of activities as follows: donations, employee voluntarism, projects, partnerships and employee welfare. These activities as yet do not form part of a formalised CSR strategy but are rather more ad hoc, they currently focus on the activity rather than the outcome. Opportunities for optimising the CSR value may not be optimised.The structure of the paper is as follows: a literature review of corporate social responsibility and community, followed by the research design, findings and a discussion and conclusion section. Corporate social responsibilityBy identifying and considering a range of stakeholders firms can gain competitive advantage by engaging with customers and other partners and encoura...

How to boost place branding leveraging on community relations

“…According to Hess et al (2002), the phenomenon of community involvement, whereby projects are grounded in the core competencies of the company and related to its long-term strategy, is referred to as corporate social initiatives -a new paradigm likely to result in a healthier economy for the country, strong place branding and positive business outcomes (Moilanen and Rainisto, 2008). In this new paradigm, community development's needs become opportunities to develop ideas, demonstrate business technologies, tap into new markets, solve business problems, strengthen active leadership and be competitive in the marketplace (Deigh et al, 2016). This seems to be the future direction of Bank 2, when one of the managers stated their plans for community involvement:…”

“…However, there is a knowledge gap regarding the boundaries or the extent to which CR could be applied successfully to boost place branding related aspects, especially in communities of developing sub-Saharan countries such as Ghana. The lack of knowledge in this area is costly as many organisations continue to promote community relations without considering its real wherewithal, and do not understand the need to equate the CR strategy to the peculiarities of the country in which it is put into practice (Deigh et al, 2016). In fact, applying CR as a standard tool with the ability to propose a solution to all kinds of communities can have dire consequences (Hunter, 2017).…”

Corporate Social Responsibility and Contemporary Community Expectations

“…The first level of these functions is economic, which is located at the bottom of the pyramid. Economics in this theory means that companies have the obligation to gain profit (Deigh, Farquhar, Palazzo & Siano, 2016). Profit taking is the most fundamental priority point that companies usually focus on.…”

“…So positive interaction with people who come from Westpac's main target market can increase the favorability. Deigh et al (2016) evaluated that strengthening the quality of human resources and physical infrastructure is the reason why companies should support education institutions, scholars and students who have high education. Nevertheless, achieving the purpose requires long-term effort.…”

“…Moreover, financial services and products are homogenous, Jain et al (2015) argued that CSR activities are regard as an opportunity to differentiating their products. Deigh et al (2016) believed that this kind of investment not only help banks to gain more market share, but also optimize the processes and services in the unbanked. However, Oxfam (2014) exposed that Westpac and WTK, a logging company in Papua New Guinea (PNG), have a banking relationship.…”