Factors Affecting Community Participation in Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility Projects: Evidence from Mangrove Forest Management Project

Abstract

Community participation in an environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) project can help business enterprises effectively develop projects that respond to the actual demands of the community and effectively utilize a firm’s resources. This study aims to investigate factors that affect community participation in each stage of environmental corporate social responsibility project development. The environmental corporate social responsibility project explored in this study is a sustainable mangrove forest management project in the Pakprasae sub-district of Rayong province in Thailand. This study has tested whether enterprise-related factors (such as perceived CSR credibility and organization–public relationship (OPR) quality) and participant-related factors (such as ecological knowledge, perceived ecological values, and expected benefits from participation in the project, both monetary and non-monetary related benefits) could predict community participation in an environmental corporate social responsibility project development initiated by a business enterprise. Questionnaire surveys were administered to 355 community members who were the target group of this environmental corporate social responsibility project from June to July 2022. The collected data were inspected and analyzed using an inferential statistical technique. Multiple regression analyses were performed to test significant factors that affected community members’ participation in planning, implementing, and monitoring the project. The results revealed that perceived ecological values were the strongest predictor of participation in all stages of the project, including planning, implementing, and monitoring the project. Perceived CSR credibility and OPR quality also significantly affected participation in all stages, whereas ecological knowledge significantly affected participation only in the monitoring stage. These findings suggest that to promote community participation in each stage of environmental corporate social responsibility project development, it is important to enhance community members’ perceived ecological values, and community members should be educated in ecology to enhance participation in the monitoring stage.

Local Institutions Performance in Mangrove Forest Management on Small Islands: Case Study in Buano Island, Maluku Province, Indonesia

“…Both excellent and effective institutions will ensure sustainable use and management. Local institutions have shown that the success of community forest management cannot be based on the strength of values and norms profoundly rooted and widely accepted by the community (Ostrom 1998;Sattayapanich and Janmaimool 2022). Steenblik (1998) stated that local communities possess the authority to establish regulations, execute judgments, and ensure adherence to rules in various domains of natural resource management.…”

Las huertas urbanas: una estrategia para la construcción de nuevas ciudades

“…Chontanawat y colaboradores (2022) realizan una investigación en la que tratan de averiguar los componentes que pueden influir en la participación de la comunidad en las fases de los proyectos medioambientales de las empresas. La investigación afirma que debido a que muchas empresas tienen un impacto negativo sobre el medioambiente en sus procesos de producción, se creó la responsabilidad social corporativa, que busca contribuir no solo al desarrollo económico, sino también a la calidad de vida de las personas, la comunidad y la sociedad (Chontanawat et al, 2022). Para que las empresas contribuyan a la compensación medioambiental, es necesaria la participación de la comunidad, ya que es a través de ella como se pueden alcanzar los objetivos del proyecto.…”

Making Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Participatory and Locally Visible – a Prototype Solution

“…With CSR defined as "the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large" according to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development [8], CSR-projects and initiatives are common practice within business operations of companies in order to assume their responsibility towards society and the stakeholders of their activities. In addition, CSR-programs help companies to gain reputation, customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction [9][10][11][12][13].…”

“…Different examples of participatory approaches in CSR strategies exist. For example, Appe and Barragán [36] describe how Participatory Action Committees (including community stakeholders and representatives) can be formed to co-design and co-implement CSR practices; Puranik [40] delineates methodological solutions to integrating the participation approach in a CSR plan; Anser et al [39] review how the participatory approach with hotel and tourism managers enhances CSR-practices in terms of their social and environmental impact; and Sattayapanich et al [9] discuss the factors that affect community participation in environmental CSRprojects.…”