Developing corporate social responsibility in financial services

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to contribute to the theory and practice of financial services marketing in sub-Saharan Africa (sSA) by investigating how financial service providers are developing corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, in particular, seeking to uncover the involvement of stakeholders.Design/methodology/approachFollowing an interpretivist approach, the study uncovers fresh and context-rich insights through an analysis of a multiple case study consisting of retail banks in Ghana. Data consist of semi-structured interviews with senior managers and analysis of documents and archives.FindingsThe study uncovers three key CSR practices practised by the retail banks: giving, community and corporate reputation/brand with which their stakeholders are only to some extent involved. Banks not as yet drawing extensively on stakeholder resources for CSR practices.Research limitations/implicationsThe study uses an inductive and in-depth approach to explore contextual insights into CSR, but with subsequent limitations on how far the findings can be extended.Practical implicationsThe study offers outline for financial services marketing involving stakeholders in CSR.Social implicationsIt discovers that banks acquire social capital through their CSR activities in the community.Originality/valueThe study contributes to financial services marketing theory and practice through an evidence-based framework uncovering the development of CSR through practices that as yet draw on stakeholder resources to a limited extent. Research suggests that CSR practices are dynamic and subject to a range of situational conditions.

Managers' understanding of artificial intelligence in relation to marketing financial services: insights from a cross-country study

“…This was followed by uploading the interview transcripts into NVivo, a qualitative data analysis (QDA) computer software package. The transcripts were reread using the software, and the data were carefully examined to identify any related concepts and categories (Deigh and Farquhar, 2021). Meanwhile, Auto-transcribe, an automated transcription technology function used to assist in the analysis of extensive datasets, was also run on our dataset.…”

“…In fact, this exploratory research approach has been previously adopted in understanding bank managers' involvement in various business operations. Here, Mogaji et al (2021a, b) interviewed a number of bank managers in Nigeria to better comprehend their financial inclusion strategies, while Deigh and Farquhar (2021) interviewed various managers to ascertain the impact of their corporate social responsibility initiatives. Larsson and Viitaoja (2017) interviewed Swedish banks managers to explore their banks' digitalisation processes.…”

“…Considerable efforts were taken to ensure the credibility of the data. First, the ethical guidelines of the authors' affiliated institution were followed, including in terms of consent, data security and confidentiality (Deigh and Farquhar, 2021). Second, we verified the role of the participants to ensure that they were giving us the right information based on their roles.…”

The impact of brand origin and CSR actions on consumer perceptions in retail banking during a crisis

“…Companies must organize their CSR activities according to consumer expectations rather than their company philanthropy agenda (Marquina and Morales, 2012) because the differences between various CSR domains and proactivity lead to differences in the consumer-brand relationship quality and consumer attitudes (Shankar and Yadav, 2020;Kim and Bhalla, 2022). CSR practices vary according to context (Deigh and Farquhar, 2021). Determining an organization's CSR scope is an "issue complexity," and properly selecting it is essential to designing meaningful CSR activities (Polonsky and Jevons, 2009).…”

Financial inclusion, financial capability and financial fragility during COVID-19 pandemic

“…The results of this study offer important insights for banking industry professionals on how to increase corporate social responsibility (CSR) and for public policymakers on how to reduce the risk of financial fragility and improve the financial wellbeing of consumers. CSR refers to a set of business practices that benefit social welfare (Deigh and Farquhar, 2021) and has been shown to enhance trust in financial institutions (Hurley et al ., 2014). Banks with a sense of CSR would develop programs to meet the needs of consumers, including those who are financially vulnerable (Monferrer Tirado et al ., 2023).…”