Corporate Social Responsibility Preferences in South Africa

Abstract

What leads firms in South Africa (SA) to prefer specific CSR initiatives over others? The researchers analyzed secondary data from publicly available information of 231 listed firms on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. To determine national/institutional level preferences, ten CSR activities were identified among all firms and ranked in terms of their mean score of whether each firm participated in an activity or not. To determine industry/stakeholder influence, CSR activities were regressed against the firms’ industry. The preference for two CSR activities, education and training and enterprise development, are common across industries. This demonstrates the institutional effect of SA’s national Black economic empowerment (BEE) policy, which promotes such activities. Charitable donations, infrastructure provision, employee voluntarism and efforts in arts, culture and sports prevail in certain industries. The preferences of firms in the mining and construction industries stand out relative to other industries. Managers have to carefully select CSR activities that respond to various societal pressures. We show an example of management responses to pressures arising from both the national and industry level context. The study is the first to rank CSR activities of South African firms. We also reveal the promise of institutional theory to examine the phenomenon of CSR in the South African context.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability in Water Supply: A Systematic Review

“…The project has doubled the water supply for the surrounding communities and nearby urban areas [2,103]. The support from various corporations has enabled the Peruvian government to adopt innovative technologies for melting glaciers and cleaning the water to make it safe for both domestic and industrial applications [2,104]. The initiative is designed to increase water supply across the country by more than 20 percent over the next 5 years.…”

“…In South Africa's Cape Town, water supply to the city's over 4 million residents has become a significant challenge. The city has been grappling with various challenges, including pollution, frequent damage, and climate change [104]. Being a port city, Cape Town should not consider water scarcity as one of its major problems.…”

“…However, its massive ocean water has not been readily available for drinking and industrial use due to various issues, including pollution. Moreover, the city has not invested sufficient resources for water desalination, making the seawater difficult to consume for the surrounding communities [104]. However, there is one initiative that has attracted global attention and may be used in other parts of the world.…”

Supply Chains and Corporate Social Responsibility Orientation: An Interpretive Structural Modeling Approach

“…As a result, businesses prioritize CSR initiatives that are essential to their closest stakeholders. As a result, companies choose some social and environmental initiatives above others when it comes to CSR [21].…”

Supporting Culture to Improve Corporate Image: The Case of Greek Banks

“…In general, such activities can be seen as a specific field of the corporate social responsibility [46] and they include financing cultural activities, promoting cultural activities in public spaces, creating and maintaining art collections, offering prize awards to outstanding cultural creators or persons and organizations that support the arts and sponsoring the training of young and talented artists. Previous research has found that CSR activities regarding culture are included in the CSR programs of companies-quite often as top priorities [9,[47][48][49][50][51].…”