Status of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in Nepal

Abstract

Background: Although there has been a significant interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in recent years, there is lack of adequate studies regarding the status of CSR practices in Nepal. The existing studies generally suffer from the narrow conceptualization of CSR, focus on selected companies or industry sector only and from the relatively small sample size.
 Objectives: This paper aims to identify the status of CSR practices in the Nepalese context.
 Methods: This study uses questionnaire survey method by taking a sample of 168 listed companies of Nepal representing diverse industry sectors. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANNOVA and t-test have been used to analyze the collected data.
 Results: The overall status of CSR practices in Nepal is above the moderate level. The most common CSR practices in Nepal relate to corporate governance as well as customers whereas the least common CSR practices include environment and community related activities. Likewise, level of CSR practices is significantly higher among large firms compared to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). However, there is no significant difference on the status of CSR practices between banking sector and non-banking sector firms.
 Conclusions: While the overall status of CSR practices in Nepal is above the moderate level, Nepalese companies are not paying adequate attention on community and environment related issues. The results also indicate that size of the firm tend to affect the level of CSR practices in the Nepalese context though the difference on CSR practices between small and medium sized firms is not statistically significant.
 Implications: The government and policy makers may consider giving tax exemption or any other clearly spelled out incentives particularly to the environment and community related CSR activities. Likewise, managers and other stakeholders including the government may focus on identifying and overcoming the barriers for CSR practices among SMEs in Nepal.

Corporate social responsibilities of DOT accredited hotels in Camarines Sur

“…Moreover, leading politicians in the area have been charged with various malversation of fund and corruption cases (Gutierez, 2013). Even while the significance of individual efforts varies from country to country, it is abundantly clear that the major roles of the government in promoting CSR include demanding, permitting, collaborating, and encouraging various initiatives (Chapagain, 2019). As such, if the government leaders' visions and goals are toward CSR, then initiatives related to it will be channeled.…”

Managerial understanding of corporate social responsibility in Nepal

“…The structured questionnaire consisted of seven constructs having five items under each construct on a five-point Likert scale. The validity of the data collection instrument was ensured through an extensive review of relevant theoretical and empirical literature in the global context (Andrews, 1952; Carr, 1968; Carroll, 1979, 1991; Davenport, 2000; Elkington, 1997; Fernández-Gámez et al , 2019; Freeman, 1984; Friedman, 1970; Koch, 1979; Matten and Crane, 2005; Porter and Kramer, 2006, 2011; Scherer and Palazzo, 2011; Scherer et al , 2016; Tortosa-Edo and López-Navarro, 2021) as well as in the Nepalese context (Chapagain, 2020; Sthapit, 2021) while preparing the instrument. For instance, the five items for CSR vis-à-vis corporate philanthropy have been adopted from Carroll (1991) and the items for CSV approach have been derived from Porter and Kramer (2011).…”

“…Some studies regarding the managers’ attitudes and views on CSR have been conducted in the Nepalese context as well. Chapagain (2008) found that the views of managers of the Nepalese banking sector on CSR were mainly guided by moral perspectives rather than strategic ones. Likewise, Adhikari et al (2016) have reported that the CSR perspectives of Nepalese executives and opinion leaders closely resembled with economic responsibilities of business.…”

Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility on Brand Image of Commercial Banks

“…In developing nations like Nepal, CSR may play an important role in the socioeconomic development of the society (NRB, 2021). In Nepal, big corporations have much greater levels of CSR practices than do small and medium-sized businesses (Chapagain, 2020). Bista (2017) observed that although there is awareness about CSR activities of commercial banks, its trend is unpredictable.…”

“…They are also found serving people who are suffering from natural calamities and disasters (Khanal, 2019). Nepalese businesses are still not paying adequate attention on social and environmental issues (Chapagain, 2020). However, the majority of banking and financial firms engage in CSR activities to improve their reputation (NRB, 2021).…”