Factors Inhibiting Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives Among Construction Companies

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is one of the best strategies that companies used in minimising negative societal and environmental impacts, enhancing economic development and improving social progress concurrently. However, there are many factors discouraging construction companies to implement or establish a CSR plan. Furthermore, there are few empirical studies in relation to CSR in construction, and the majority of empirical research on CSR implementation are rooted in the organisational and economic context of the developed world. Therefore, the current study seeks to investigate the factors inhibiting CSR initiatives among construction companies within the context of a developing country such as Nigeria. The study adopted a survey research method. Questionnaires were administered to a purposively selected group of managing directors, directors, other top construction professionals or management personnel involved in the operation of small, medium and large construction companies in Nigeria. A total of 196 questionnaires were administered among the sampled respondents out of which a total of 119 representing 61% were adequately filled and returned. The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed corruption tendencies borne from lack of transparency between companies and government, lack of CSR benefits measurement, lack of financial resources, inadequate support from top management and lack of governmental support as the top five factors inhibiting CSR initiatives among construction companies in Nigeria. In addition, the results from the study revealed that, there is no statistically significant difference in factors inhibiting CSR in construction between indigenous and expatriate and partly indigenous/partly expatriate companies. The findings provide in-depth insight of the factors inhibiting CSR programmes in construction that can help top construction professionals and management personnel in construction companies facilitate development of strategies required to mitigate the factors inhibiting CSR programmes.

Barriers to corporate social responsibility performance in construction organizations

“…Literature review, content analysis and focus group discussion are among the popular techniques that may be used to identify barriers to CSR performance (Agudo-Valiente et al. , 2017; Bevan and Yung, 2015; Osuizugbo et al. , 2021; Pham et al.…”

“…Employing a similar technique to Alotaibi et al (2019), noticed implementation cost of CSR is the most critical barrier among eight obstacles to CSR performance in Australia and New Zealand. Also, Osuizugbo et al (2021) simply employed the mean value technique and found that corruption tendencies, lack of CSR benefits measurement and lack of financial resources were the top three factors hindering CSR activities among Nigerian construction firms. Prior studies neglected the interrelationships among CSR barriers.…”

“…Literature review, content analysis and focus group discussion are among the popular techniques that may be used to identify barriers to CSR performance (Agudo-Valiente et al, 2017;Bevan and Yung, 2015;Osuizugbo et al, 2021;Pham et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2019). Reviewing previous studies allows the researchers to understand the general achievements of CSR-related topics, especially barriers to CSR.…”

Buildability in the construction industry: a systematic review

“…Osuizugbo (2020b) also stated that poor knowledge on the buildability concept exists among the construction professionals in the developing nations. In addition, lack of research on developing nations has been attributed to dissimilarities in economic, geographic and political circumstances that are in existence in those countries (Osuizugbo et al , 2021). Hence, investigations focusing on the adoption and use of the buildability concept in construction needs to be conducted in the context of developing countries.…”

Factors supporting the implementation of buildability assessment as a tool for buildability improvement

“…A glean from literature shows very few studies on buildability in developing countries. The reason for the lack of study on developing countries could be as a result of differences in geographic, economic and political situations in those countries (Osuizugbo et al , 2021). Therefore, other countries of the world need to adopt same so as to benefit from the buildability assessment concept.…”