Title: Corporate Social Responsibility in The Banking Sector of A Developing Country: A Ghanaian Perspective
Title: Corporate Social Responsibility in The Banking Sector of A Developing Country: A Ghanaian Perspective
Title: Corporate Social Responsibility in The Banking Sector of A Developing Country: A Ghanaian Perspective
February 2016
Abstract
Based on the analysis, this study suggests that there is a strong orientation
towards philanthropy on what is classified as CSR. It reveals that the context
in which CSR is practised is complex and situationally dependent, with
particular influencing factors such as social welfare issues and culture driving
societal expectations and business decisions on CSR.
ii
Author’s Declaration
I declare that this thesis is my own unaided work. It is being submitted for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Bedfordshire.
It has not been submitted before for any degree or examination in any other
University.
iii
Dedication
iv
Table of Contents
Abstract ...........................................................................................................ii
Dedication ......................................................................................................iv
Table of Contents........................................................................................... v
List of Tables.................................................................................................. x
1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 1
v
3 Developing the Conceptual Framework: Corporate Social Responsibility
18
Philosophical Assumptions....................................................... 61
Research Strategy.................................................................... 64
vi
Primary data: Interviews ........................................................... 74
Time ......................................................................................... 79
Credibility ................................................................................. 88
Transferability ........................................................................... 90
Dependability ........................................................................... 94
Confirmability ........................................................................... 95
My background ......................................................................... 97
Assessment Phase................................................................... 98
Implementation Phase.............................................................. 99
vii
Prioritisation of CSR responsibilities....................................... 114
viii
Community Relations ............................................................. 173
ix
List of Tables
x
List of Figures
xi
Acknowledgements
This thesis could not have been accomplished without the expert contributions
and guidance of my Directors of Studies - Prof Jillian Farquhar and Dr Barbara
Czarnecka, and Supervisors Dr Carmine De Vita and Dr Maria Rita Massoro.
My appreciation goes to Dr Peter Norrington for his patience and attention to
detail in proof-reading my work.
To my mom, Mrs Dinah Ekuban, I thank you for being my biggest fan and
motivation to carry on during those very difficult times. To my dear friends
Beatrice and Josef-Israel Obeng, your encouragement and prayers were
invaluable. Finally, Ms Christina Brew, I appreciate your support and that much
needed phone call to find out how I was progressing – thank you.
A big gratitude goes to my Lord, Jesus Christ for making it all possible.
xii
List of Publications and Conference papers
Deigh, L., Farquhar, J., Palazzo, M., and Siano, A. (2016) "Corporate social
responsibility: engaging the community." Qualitative Market Research: An
International Journal 19 (2), pp. 225-240.
xiii
Philanthropy in developing countries: context of Ghana
1st UGBS Conference on Business and Development, 8–9 April 2013, Accra,
Ghana
xiv
Corporate Community Relations: A sub-Saharan bank Perspective
xv
1 Introduction
1.1 Overview
This chapter provides an overview of the thesis. It discusses the justification
and rationale of the research, overall research aims and objectives, as well as
the research approach and methodology. The chapter concludes with an
overview of the structure and content of each chapter within the thesis.
1
CSR (Forstater, 2010). The research is prompted on Visser’s work (2008) –
Revisiting Carroll’s CSR Pyramid: An African Perspective – which challenges
the standardisation of Carroll’s CSR pyramid (1991) and the relevance of the
model in Africa.
To date, Carroll’s model is the most commonly described and used concept of
CSR in Western countries, especially the USA, Europe and the UK (Crane &
Matten, 2004). This model was a major contribution to knowledge of CSR in
the 1990s, which has been cited by several CSR authors (Mitchell & Agle,
1997; Bhattacharya, 2001; Phillips & Freeman, 2003; Matten & Crane, 2005;
Matten & Moon, 2008) and has evolved and been revised over the last two-
and-a-half decades (1991 to 2015) decades, but according to Visser, most of
the research has been in a US context where certain potential influencers in a
different economic and cultural context on perceived CSR priorities may not
have featured.
The goal of this study is to respond to Visser’s call for Carroll’s model in the
African context to be analysed with empirical evidence to explore the important
components of CSR and the key influencers within the same context, by using
Ghana. In particular, Visser questions the suitability of the four-part construct
to interpret the manifestation of CSR in an African context.
2
improvement from 31.9% in 2006 (World Development Indicators, 2014).
However, the percentage of the population which had access to improved
water source was only 81%. Both statistics provide clear indications of
challenges with basic amenities in the country to constitute a developing nation
(World Development Indicators, 2014).
However, Ghana is also one of the fastest growing economies across the
sectors of agriculture, extraction and services, with financial services being
one of the areas of significant growth in the services sector. The country
therefore served as an appropriate setting for investigating the CSR
phenomenon in terms of being a developing country that has the
characteristics of advancing domestic businesses and multinational
investments. However, the choice of domestic businesses was more relevant
from the viewpoint of CSR practice not being influenced by the foreign
agendas of the parent companies of multinationals. Current literature on CSR
in Ghana scarcely addresses the financial sector but rather primarily the
extractive industry, with a few exploratory studies across industry sectors,
management and CSR practices of multi-national and local companies; mining
(Tshikata 1997; Boon & Ababio 2009; Amponsah-Tawiah 2011; Andrews
2016); environment (Ndzibah 2009); management (Ofori 2010); CSR
reporting (Belal & Momin 2009) and CSR practices (Kuada & Hinson 2012),
thus providing an opportunity for research in this area.
Thus, this thesis presents the investigation of CSR in retail banking within a
developing economy context of Ghana. Ultimately, a model was identified to
capture how CSR is practised in domestic retail banks in Ghana, whilst
identifying the priority responsibilities of CSR in this particular context and its
relation with their communications strategy.
3
1.4 Research Aim and Objectives
The aim of this research is to develop a model of CSR using the context of
retail banks in Ghana. The primary question is:
The key issues that surface from the primary question shapes the main
objectives of the study as follows:
4
Chapter 3 examines the nature of corporate social responsibility by drawing
on a wide range of literature. It explores the evolution of this concept, the
theory and its applicability. Most importantly, it analyses the redefinition of the
established Carroll’s pyramid of CSR and the prioritisation of it four functional
components. This and chapter two develop the conceptual framework and set
the platform on which this thesis is based.
Chapter 5 explains the data from each of the cases. It justifies the use of an
inductive approach to present and discuss the emerging themes from each
case. These explanations and discussions make sense of the data within each
individual case.
Chapter 7 draws conclusions from the key findings of the research. It details
the contribution of the study, charts further research and addresses the
limitations of the study.
5
2 Setting the Context: Ghana and its banking sector
2.1 Introduction
This chapter scopes out and examines Ghana’s banking sector within the
context of developing sub-Saharan Africa. It discusses the factors that impact
business operations in this sector and subsequently influence CSR practices.
The purpose of this chapter is to build the argument for selecting a multiple
case study of banks. The aim of a case study approach is to look at the
phenomenon (CSR) in depth and within context to advance understanding of
that phenomenon.
6
In CSR, the word “corporate” associated with “social responsibility” suggests
a social role or responsibilities expected from and applicable to “larger”
organisations (Jenkins, 2004; Herrmann, 2004). Hence, the size of the banks
justifies the choice of cases from the viewpoint that they are larger than small
and medium-sized enterprises. Moreover, to date, multinational corporations
(MNCs) have dominated the CSR agenda because the larger the company,
the more reputational and brand image risks there are to consider (Jenkins,
2004). Indeed, the recent global financial crisis has left some major brands
suffering from severe damage to their reputations, thus, serving as a warning
to these upcoming brands. Therefore, a focus on domestic banks in this
context, additionally contributes to knowledge from the viewpoint of the banks’
considerations of corporate reputation and brand-building where CSR is
concerned, especially in the face of current, increasing competition in Ghana’s
financial sector. Also, the use of domestic banks provides an insight into the
role they play in responding to social expectations and their involvement in the
social domain (Jenkins, 2004; Luetkenhorst, 2004) which is interestingly
different from the familiar social role of MNCs. An immediate relevance of CSR
to these banks is that CSR increases trust in firms (Brammer & Pavelin, 2006)
and influences their corporate reputation (Lai et al, 2010). In the context of
Ghana’s fast-growing banking sector, these two elements may be what the
banks need to ensure their sustainability, and this study sets out to explore the
possibilities.
2.3 Ghana
The Republic Of Ghana is a lower-middle income country located in the West
African region (see Figure 2.1), with a population of 25.5 million (World Bank
Data, 2012). Although Ghana’s past has been rife with corruption and
mismanagement since independence in 1957, it is rich in minerals and
endowed with a good education system and efficient civil system. In 2013, the
country recorded total enrolment in primary school education at 103%
(including adults) of the official primary education age population, with total
adult literacy rates at 71.5% (Statistics a Glance: Ghana, 2013). Ghana
continues to pursue its key goal of universal access to education (informed by
the Millennium Development Goals), with a focus on access to high school in
7
rural areas and underserved communities through its Secondary Education
Improvement Programme which was launched in 2014 (The Report: Ghana
2016). Indeed, although it is a developing country, by regional standards
Ghana is considered to be a well-administered, democratic country. The
discovery of major offshore oil reserves in 2007 and the onset of its production
in 2010 set expectations for a major economic boost and provided a resilient
Ghanaian economy during the world economic downturn in 2008, posting
some of Africa’s highest annual GDP growth rates. According to the World
Bank, Ghana was one of the fastest growing economies in 2012 with GDP just
under 15%, placed sixth amongst thirteen developing countries (World Bank
African Pulse, 2013). In recent year, Ghana’s continued economic challenges
and its subsequent social implications are contributed by decline in the
currency, low commodity prices and the rise in government debt. The economy
of Ghana depends on global commodities such as cocoa, gold and oil for
income and foreign currency. However, the economic development of the
country has slowed down recently due to temperamental pricing for these
resources, increased spending on domestic public sector wages, and a
national electricity shortage. This has led to a slower than predicted GDP year-
on-year growth of 4% at $33.4bn in 2014, with non-oil GDP totalling $31.12bn
(The report: Ghana 2016). Despite the slower growth, the financial sector
continues to grow in its competitiveness.
8
Figure 2.1: Map of Ghana
Source: Infoplease.com
9
lack of appropriate titles to their assets to use as collateral for loans (Kuma,
2014). Examples of some of the major players in this sector include ProCredit,
Opportunity and Garden City Savings & Loans who have comparative
advantage in this market space.
10
and new banks had to have a minimum capital requirement of 70 billion Cedis
($7.5 million) (PWC: Ghana Financial Sector, 2014). Data from 2003 showed
continuous developments and increase in asset growth and credit expansion
(GIPC, 2008).
As at June 2009, the BOG had registered 26 licensed universal banks (see
Table 2.1) operating in Ghana. Most of these banks are local apart from those
with sub-regional branches, such as Ecobank; whilst Standard Chartered and
Barclays have offshore operations. In 1975, the Ghanaian government
acquired a 40 per cent equity stake in these two foreign-owned multinational
banks, which were established in Ghana during the colonial period, following
an indigenisation decree enacted in the same year. In 2010, another sub-
regional bank called Access also entered the market. In the same period, 34
rural and community banks, 27 credit unions and 2 savings and loans
companies were also identified as formally licensed as micro-finance
institutions (Aboagye, 2009). The exponential growth of Ghana’s financial and
banking sector has created a rather competitive environment which makes it
imperative not just to attract customers, but also to embark on strategies such
as CSR aimed at business development as well as maintaining these
customers and engaging stakeholders positively.
11
Table 2.1: Banks in Ghana’s Financial Sector (2010)
Commercial Development Merchant
Ghana Commercial Bank National Investment Bank Merchant Bank
Standard Chartered Bank Agricultural Development Ecobank
Bank
Barclays Bank International Commercial Continental
SG-SSB Ltd The Trust Bank First Atlantic
Metropolitan Allied Prudential Bank Continental Acceptance
The Trust Bank Amalgamated Bank CAL Bank
Zenith Bank Apex Rural Bank
Intercontinental
Standard Trust Bank
Fidelity Bank
Guaranty Trust Bank
Bank of Baroda Bank
Access Bank
Unique Trust (now UT)
Bank
Source: Updated from Hinson et al (2009)
In Ghana, out of the current total of 26 retail banks (2013), 15 are foreign and
11 are domestic banks making domestic retail banks nearly 50% of the sector
by number.
In the context of Ghana, due to the weak public administration and service
delivery of sub-Saharan African (SSA) governments identified earlier,
business operations in these societies are under pressure to focus their CSR
activities to resolve the socio-economic challenges faced by communities,
which local governments are unable to fully address. Hence, there is a genuine
need of the communities that the businesses are obliged to fulfil. This fulfilment
by businesses, thus, falls under the umbrella of CSR which aims to address
and respond to these social concerns.
13
although there is little evidence of the Ghana government being proactive in
soliciting this engagement with domestic businesses and certainly not with
domestic retail banks, there are indications of variations of formal structures
within sector policies and across-industry indicators, such as the Ghana Club
100 (GC 100) which regulates the Business Code, to encourage businesses
to engage responsibly with the society. The Companies Code 1963 (Act 179)
provides the main corporate governance for registered companies, although it
is out of touch with current worldwide corporate governance developments
and requires updating. Additionally, the Commission on Human Rights and
Administrative Justice (CHRA), Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition,
Transparency International, the media and some non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) that deal with social and environmental issues
contribute to the CSR agenda in Ghana.
GC 100 is an annual, official list which recognises the top 100 companies in
Ghana for improved products and services, as well as encouraging
competition. GC 100, which was established in 1997, is organised by the
Ghana Investment Promotion Centre to recognise the best performing
companies in the country. Club members are ranked to serve as role models
for the private sector and provide a platform for corporate Ghana to interact
with the government at high level. Each year an awards event is organised to
honour corporations for their excellence in governance and performance, and
also to encourage businesses in Ghana to demonstrate and lead the nation’s
business efforts in the global business environment.
GC 100 also works with the Ghana Business Code (GHBC) to incorporate key
elements of the code to provide a value-based analysis of companies’
corporate culture rather than a simplistic outlook on how much money is spent
on CSR (GIPC: Ghana Club100, 2008).
14
relating to human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-
corruption. The Code represents three main areas as requirements for
compliance by corporations in supply chain management, namely business
match-making, business mentoring schemes, and financing, national and
international procurement. These three categories include a) a unique process
of consultation and collaboration, b) a unique product that meets both local
and international requirements, and c) unique possibilities for sustainable
business development.
Unique Trust and Fidelity have been chosen because they are both currently
members of Ghana Club 100 (GIPC: Ghana Club100, 2008) which is an
indication of sound performance and governance.
15
This suggests that the affiliation of Unique Trust and Fidelity Bank to the
causes of the Business Code should be evident in their strategies and
operations.
UT Bank
In 2008, Unique Trust (which changed name in 2008 to UT Bank Ghana Ltd)
placed fifth in GC 100’s rankings. The initial focus of UT was centred on
servicing the “unbanked” informal sector, but over the past few years, UT's
services have extended to cover the formal sector. The company claims to
maintain an open, flexible policy that allows it to accommodate the financial
needs of its customers without prejudice. Products include various short-term
loans, working capital financing, business advisory services and trade
financing to SMEs (www.utbankghana.com).
Fidelity Bank
Access Bank
Access Bank originated in Nigeria, with presence in nine African countries and
the United Kingdom. Access Bank ranks amongst the top 20 banks in Africa
and top 10 in West Africa by capital. The bank’s mission is to “go beyond the
ordinary, to deliver the perceived impossible, in the Quest for Excellence”. The
company’s core values include excellence, ethics, trust, teamwork, passion for
customers and continuous learning. Although Access is not yet a member of
16
GC 100, it has a clear CSR charter on the corporate website. The bank claims
to have a well-designed and integrated CSR strategy having the best interests
of their stakeholders at hand (www.accessbankplc.com).
2.6 Conclusion
In sum, the context in which the phenomenon is investigated is established by
looking at the motivations, differentiators and influencers in the banking sector
of Ghana. The socio-economic priorities and political environment of Ghana
have a huge impact on how businesses operate making it important for CSR
to be examined. Additionally, the informal sector of the country’s economy
reflects on the financial landscape with the ever-expanding micro-financial
institutions and rural banks taking the larger share of the sector. This trend can
potentially serve as an opportunity for the retail banks in future. Whilst there is
an indication of a strong sense of community between businesses and the
community, the implementation of corporate responsibility in Ghana is low,
with weak policy structures, and compliance with and enforcement of policies.
Although there are continued economic challenges in Ghana, Ghanaian banks
have shown resilience to the challenges that have faced counterparts in
developed countries since the economic recession in 2008, which is
sustainable by being responsible banks. Therefore, this research explores
how CSR decisions are made and implemented within the context of domestic
banks in Ghana.
17
3 Developing the Conceptual Framework: Corporate Social
Responsibility
3.1 Introduction
This chapter develops a conceptual framework of CSR to guide the later
empirical work. It reviews the literature on CSR and establishes a conceptual
framework that enables the research gap to be investigated. The purpose is to
give consideration to the dominant concept of CSR and to explore its suitability
within a developing economy context, as discussed in chapter 2.
CSR has been subject to research for some time, and has been redefined and
given different perspectives by academics over several decades. This makes
defining of CSR a challenge, as there are several ways of focusing the
definition of CSR depending on which dimension it is viewed through.
2. Establish the scope in which CSR has been defined to date and its
relevance in the context of this study.
18
CSR has increasingly become an important feature for discussion in the top
management journals due to its relevance to businesses and managers.
Similar to Busenitz et al’s (2003, p.285) analogy, the field of CSR can be
referred to as having ‘highly permeable boundaries’, which allows the nature
of CSR to transcend across different disciplines – that is, different theoretical
or methodological approaches. The focus of the review is to address how CSR
has evolved over time; what areas of CSR have been researched, and the
nature and salience of researched CSR. Thus, the CSR articles were
categorised according to the dominant themes reflected in using corporate
social responsibility as search key words in the titles and abstracts. Articles
that were found as a result covered the areas of ethics, environmental, social,
stakeholders. The nature of CSR was categorised based on the analysis of
theoretical or empirical studies (qualitative and quantitative). The review of
CSR literature is based on approximately a ten-year block (2003–2013),
assembled during the period 2008–2014.
As knowledge of CSR has evolved, different themes and notions have been
explored. Although certain periods have been dominated by certain themes,
they are not mutually exclusive and overlap in their perspectives (as indicated
in Figure 3.3). However, in terms of the review of general management
literature, journal articles were categorised according to the focus of CSR area
researched the country and research method. Literature on environmental
issues is well established, with business ethics also being an area of significant
focus in CSR. This was true across both management and CSR-specific
journals. However, there was an indication of increased debate on social
concept of CSR and stakeholder relationships in the CSR-specific journals.
The most researched countries in the management journals were those of
North America and Europe and a few in Asia. As indicated in the examples in
Table 3.2, the review suggests that articles in the general management
literature were primarily more focused in the USA and North America. The next
most researched region was Europe, with the UK being the primary focus. The
Asian country which showed up most frequently was Japan. These research
articles were predominantly quantitative in methodology, followed by
theoretical research. Additionally, the most dominant CSR issues or areas
19
published in the earlier part of this decade were on stakeholder relationships
and strategic approaches to CSR. This is on the backdrop of a period where
published research had evolved from CSR issues on business environment
and ethics.
20
research in African developing countries have been dominated by themes on
environment and ethics (Ite, 2004, 2007a, 2007b; Ofori & Hinson, 2007), which
is similarly in accordance with Lockett et al’s (2006) findings from top
management journals. Recent years have however seen an increase in social
issues and stakeholder obligations (Schinidheiny, 2006), nevertheless, in only
pockets of the African continent, with dominating countries being South Africa
and Nigeria. This is in accordance with Visser (2005a), who suggests that CSR
literature on sub-Saharan Africa is predominantly from South Africa, with scant
research from West Africa like Côte d'Ivoire (Scharge & Ewing, 2005) and
Nigeria (Amaeshi et al, 2006); East Africa like Kenya (Dolan & Opondo, 2005;
Tanzania (Egels, 2005); southern Africa like Zambia (Hamman et al, 2005)
and Northern Africa (Hamann et al, 2005). Additionally, the studies depict
differences in different African developing countries (Babarinde, 2009; Jamali
& Mirshak, 2007), which adds to the contextual argument of research in CSR.
Overall, it is important to note that the literature review reveals a large number
of research studies that have used and/or adapted Carroll’s model since it’s
proposal in 1991. Evidence demonstrates that the initial studies were done by
Carroll testing the model in the US. Additional studies focused on North
America, Europe and in a few cases in Japan. It is only in the recent decade
of the 2000’s that has seen a revisit of the CSR pyramid in research studies in
developing countries. In Appendix E, the table further demonstrates evidence
that literature was more focused on developed countries rather than
developing countries. The application of the CSR pyramid was also more
prevalent in the context of developed countries with sparse use in the
developing country context. This dearth of CSR literature in the developing
country context, further reiterates the proposed gap in research to address the
relevance of the CSR pyramid within the context of a developing country.
In terms of methods used, literature in top management journals has had more
weighting towards empirical research, and is dominated by quantitative
methods (see Table 3.2). Again, this supports Lockett et al’s (2006) findings
of CSR articles in top management journals reflecting the preference of
positivist research. In the last decade, however, there has been an increase in
qualitative research, both in the top management journals and the CSR-
21
specific journals. Dominant research papers on environmental issues have
focused on traditionally high impact sectors like agriculture (e.g. Blowfield,
2003; Scharge & Ewing, 2005; Dolan & Opondo 2005), mining (e.g. Kapelus,
2002) and petrochemicals (e.g. Acult et al, 2004, Edoho, 2008). This therefore
leaves a huge research gap in other sectors such as the services sector.
Nigeria’s literature particularly reflects environmental issues, ethical issues
and corporate citizenship in the petroleum sector, whereas literature in South
Africa reflects environment, ethical issues and CSR strategy with a sectoral
focus on mining and health. Although there is a current growing trend in social
relationships of businesses in Africa, this is still under-developed from the
viewpoint that the literature is very specific to geographical locations, and
different countries portray different CSR practices. Visser et al (2005) agrees
that CSR literature in this area still remains sparse. Table 3.1 illustrates the
main types of journals reviewed that covered the themes explored in CSR both
from regional and country-specific context.
The above review of literature suggests that the nature and focus of existing
literature on CSR in general management in developed countries and CSR-
specific journals dominating in developing regions and countries suggested
that there was a huge scope for developing insights and contributing to
knowledge on research in CSR in the developing context of Africa, specifically
in the services sector in Ghana.
22
Table 3.1: Main journals reviewed on CSR in Africa (2003–2013)
Journals Geographical Focus of Africa
Number Country
Business Ethics: A European Review 34 South Africa
Journal of Corporate Citizenship 22 South Africa, Kenya,
Ghana
Business Ethics Quarterly 21 South Africa, Nigeria
Journal of Business Ethics 13 Nigeria, Tanzania,
Ghana, Uganda
Business and Society 12 South Africa, Malawi,
Nigeria
Corporate Social Responsibility & 3 South Africa, Nigeria
Environment Management
International Journal of Bank Marketing 2 Ghana, Jordan
23
Table 3.2 Examples of articles reviewed from top management journals
Author & Year Journal Countries Method Research Questions Findings
Rodell, 2013 Academy of USA Quantitative Examines the connection between Suggested that volunteering was
Management individuals' volunteering and their associated with both volunteer and job
Journal jobs. meaningfulness, and that the pull of
meaningful volunteer work was even
stronger when employees had less
meaning in their jobs.
Flammer, 2013 USA Quantitative Examines whether shareholders are Study suggests that the positive
sensitive to corporations' environmental (negative) stock market reaction to eco-
footprint. friendly (-harmful) events is smaller for
companies with higher levels of
environmental CSR.
Surroca et al, 2013 North America Quantitative Examine how multinational enterprises Propose that mounting stakeholder
(USA), Europe (MNEs) respond to pressure to conform pressure in an MNE's home country
(UK), Australia, to their stakeholders' expectations for leads to the transfer of socially
greater attention to CSR. irresponsible practices from its
Asia (Japan)
headquarters to its overseas
subsidiaries.
Chin et al, 2013 Administrative USA Quantitative We propose that CEOs’ political They indicate that the political
Science Quarterly ideologies will influence their firms’ ideologies of CEOs are manifested in
CSR. their firms’ CSR profiles.
Muthuri et al, 2009 British Journal of UK Qualitative Investigate whether and how employee Contributes to our understanding of EV
Management volunteering contributes to social and the factors that enable it to create
capital. social capital.
Galbreath, 2010 Australia Quantitative Empirical research to demonstrate A formal strategic planning effort is
what actually shapes or drives CSR. positively linked to CSR.
Bondy & Starkey, UK Qualitative Investigating the extent to which foreign Global strategies are legitimated and
2014 national culture and related local issues local issues are marginalized.
are incorporated into the CSR policy.
24
Cheah et al, 2011 Canada, Kenya Quantitative Characteristics of socially responsible Benefits from understanding the
investors (SRIs) demographic profile of SRIs - lower
cost of capital and improves and CSR
ranking
Zyglidopoulos, Turkey Quantitative Corporate Reputation Downsizing has a negative impact on
2005 corporate reputation.
Flores et al, 2003 California Mexico Qualitative Argues that emerging or low-income The use of entrepreneurship, values
Management markets can be profitable if companies conflicts, and consumers’ desire for a
Review create productive customers by better life.
focusing on cultural innovation, cross-
selling, customer retention, and
involvement with the community.
Mirvis & Googins, USA Qualitative Reports on business leaders Outlines a set of steps to measure
2006 throughout the world who are corporate responsibility performance,
making corporate citizenship a key
priority
Vallaster, et al, USA Qualitative Argues that CSR is changing the rules Offers a framework for companies to
2012 of branding but it is unclear how. address CSR and their brands
strategically.
Friedman & Miles, Journal of USA Theoretical Enables an analysis of the Insight into why and how
2002 Management organization/stakeholder relationship. organisation/stakeholder relations
Studies change over time.
Brammer & UK Quantitative Data on a sample of large firms, Demonstrate the need to achieve a ‘fit’
Pavelin, 2006 estimates a model of corporate among the types of corporate social
reputation. We find reputation to be performance undertaken and the firm’s
determined by a firm's social stakeholder environment.
performance, financial performance,
market risk, the extent of long-term
institutional ownership, and the nature
of its business activities
Lockett et al, 2006 Various countries Theoretical Investigation of the status of CSR Most popular issues investigated in
research within management literature. management journals have been
environmental and ethics.
25
Table 3.3 Examples of articles reviewed from CSR-specific journals
Author, Year Journal Country Method Theme
Ahmed, 2006 Journal of Pakistan Qualitative CSR strategy / Stakeholder relations
Corporate
Citizenship
Amaeshi et al, 2006 Nigeria Theoretical Social obligation and Human rights
Battisti, 2009 Austria Qualitative Corporate Citizenship
Birch, 2008 USA Theoretical Stakeholder-Business dialogue
Chesters, 2008 Australia Qualitative Corporate philanthropy
Dolan & Opondo, Kenya Qualitative Employee volunteering
2005
Egels, 2005 Tanzania Qualitative Stakeholder relations
Frynas, 2006 Argentina, Mexico, Theoretical Environmental
Nigeria, Malaysia,
Pakistan
Idemidia, 2008 Developing regions Theoretical CSR-Business development linkages
McIntosh, 2003 Middles East, North Quantitative CSR initiatives by MNCs
Africa
Pedersen, 2005 Sierra Leone, Qualitative Corporate Citizenship practices by developing agencies
Uganda,
Mozambique
Phillips, 2006 Nigeria Quantitative Cross-sectoral social obligations
Schrage & Ewing, Côte d'Ivoire Quantitative Stakeholder relationships (agriculture sector)
2005
Bramner & Business Ethics UK Qualitative Charitable donations
Millington, 2003
26
Brei & Bohn, 2011 Various African Qualitative CSR & culture
countries
Brennan & Baines, South Africa Qualitative Business Ethics
2006
Graafland, 2004 Denmark Quantitative Corporate reputation
Kujala, 2004 Finland Qualitative Business Ethics
Mikkila, 2003 Finland Theoretical Corporate Social Performance
Moore, 2003 UK Theoretical CSR practices
Toppinen & South Africa, Qualitative Stakeholder involvement
Korhonen-Kurks, Sweden, Finland
2013
Vitell & Paotillo, Spain, Turkey, UK, Qualitative CSR strategy
2004 USA
Buch and Dixon, Sustainable South Africa Qualitative Environment
2009 Development
Ite, 2004 Nigeria Qualitative Environment
Rinzin et al, 2007 Bhutan & Qualitative Environment
Netherlands
Alemagi et al, 2006 CSR & Cameroon Quantitative Environment
Environmental
Management
Edoho, 2008 Nigeria Quantitative Environment
Idemudia and Ite, Nigeria Theoretical Community / Stakeholder relations
2006
Kehbila et al, 2009 South Africa Quantitative Environment
Mitchell & Hill, 2009 South Africa Quantitative Environment
Hamann et al, 2005 Business & South Africa Theoretical CSR Strategy
Society
Pedersen, 2006 Stakeholder relations
27
Ofori and Hinson, Corporate Ghana Qualitative Business Ethics
2007 Governance
28
3.2 Development and Evolution of Corporate Social Responsibility
Although CSR has been widely discussed in the last 50 years, arguably, the
idea of businesses having social responsibility has been around since the
nineteenth century, with many of its roots in religion. The beginning of the
Industrial Revolution in Britain brought about the development of factory towns
such as Bourneville in 1879 (by George Cadbury), Port Sunlight in 1888
(William Lever, later Viscount), and Saltaire in 1851 (by Titus Salt, later
knighted) (Smith, 2003). During a time when Britain’s economic condition and
environmental pollution from industrialisation were at its worst, these towns
were built by these large employers to provide their workers with decent
housing and amenities such as clean water, schools, libraries, hospitals, parks
and churches. The aim of doing this was to increase positive moral attitude
and productivity amongst employees. As a result, these organisations would
be less vulnerable to any political unrest and militancy, which was evident in a
number of industrial towns at the time. This was a way the employer promoted
the physical and moral welfare of the workers. The fundamental idea here can
be described as CSR. In recent times, many organisations continue to
increasingly consider it necessary to define their roles in society and commit
to apply social and ethical standards to their businesses (Lichtenstein et al,
2004; Pinkston & Carroll, 1994). However, many businesses struggle with the
effort to implement (Lingreen et al, 2009).
In any case, it is only since the 1950s that there has been substantial formal
literature and research on this subject, mostly from developed countries such
as the USA, the UK and Western Europe. Academic theories and themes of
CSR were substantially developed from this period onwards. Table 3.4
captures the evolution of CSR literature over the decades.
29
Table 3.4: Evolution of CSR Construct
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Beginning of modern Expansion of Proliferation of Empirical Research Alternative Theoretical developments
era construct definitions definitions thematic and measurement
framework initiatives
Bowen (1953) Davis (1960) Heald (1970) Jones (1980) Wood (1991) Moir (2001)
Eells (1956) Frederick (1960) Johnson (1971) Tuzzolino & Armandi (1981) Carroll (1991) Porter & Kramer (2002)
Heald (1957) McGuire (1963) Steiner (1971) Dalton & Cosier (1982) Carroll (1994) Irwin (2003)
Selekmans (1959) Davis & Bloomstrom Manne & Wallich (1972) Strand (1983) Swanson (1995) Waddock (2004)
(1966)
Davis (1967) Davis (1973) Drucker (1984) Clement-Jones (2005)
Walton (1967) Eilbert & Parker (1973) Cochran & Wood (1984) Matten & Crane (2005)
Ealls & Walton (1974) Aupperle, Carroll & Hatfield Visser (2006)
(1984)
Sethi (1975) Wartick & Cochran (1985) Visser (2008)
Ackerman (1973) Epstein (1987) Jamali & Mirshak (2007)
Ackerman & Bauer (1976) Puffer & McCarthy (2008)
Preston & Post (1975) Babarinde (2009)
Holmes (1976) Porter & Kramer (2011)
Bowman & Haire (1975)
Fitch (1976)
Abbott & Monsen (1979)
Zenisek (1979)
Carroll (1979)
According to Carroll (1999), the first recorded perspective of CSR was by
Bowen (1953). Bowen defined CSR as an organisation’s social obligation “to
pursue those policies, to make those decisions or to follow those lines of action
which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of our society” (p.6).
In other words, the decisions made and actions of these organisations have
varied impacts on the lives of the citizens and depend on what the objectives
and values of a specific society are. Also, a survey by Fortunes Magazine
(1949, as cited by Bowen, 1953), suggested that the editors of the magazine
by CSR or the “social consciousness” of managers meant that businessmen
were responsible for the consequences of their action which was beyond their
organisation’s financial performance. In this survey, 93.7% of the
businessmen who responded agreed to the statement. This draws attention to
the fact that as far back as that decade, there was a need and
acknowledgement for organisations to be socially responsible. Bowen
stressed in his book that social responsibility contains an important truth that
must guide business in the future.
Throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, CSR definitions were expanded,
proliferated and subsequently supported by empirical research. The 1960s
marked a significant growth in an attempt to more accurately define and
formalise CSR definitions. Davis (1960, p.70) defined CSR as “businessmen’s
decisions and actions taken for reasons at least partially beyond the firm’s
direct economic or technical interest”. Davis (1960) argued that social
responsibility should be seen within a managerial context, where socially
responsible business decisions could be justified as having the ability to bring
economic gain to the organisation in the long run, thus paying it back for being
socially responsible. Ultimately, if a business avoided its social responsibility,
this would lead to a fall in its economic power. Consequently, Davis became
well known for his views on the positive relationship between social
responsibility and business power or long-run economic gain to the business.
Frederick (1960) contributed to this concept by saying that businessmen
should oversee the operations of a business such that the production and
distribution enhances the total socio-economic welfare of the society. The
definition of CSR became more precise in this decade when Joseph McGuire,
in his book, Business and Society (1963) stated that, “The idea of social
responsibility supposes that the corporation has not only economic and legal
obligations but also certain responsibilities to society which extend beyond
these obligations” (p.144). Although he did not clarify in the definition what
these obligations are, he explained by saying that organisations have to take
interest in politics, in the welfare of the community, in education, in employees’
happiness and in the entire social world. He also stated that businesses should
act “justly” as proper citizens (p.144). This latter statement hints to the notion
of corporate citizenship and business ethics – concepts which are still being
used to date in reference to organisations. Corporate citizenship in broad
terms is the role of a company in considering its responsible involvement within
the wider community. Walton (1967), in a book entitled Corporate Social
Responsibilities, addressed CSR as concerned with the role of the business
firm and the businessperson in modern society. He presented a fundamental
definition of social responsibility as follows:
32
responsibility to act in the public interest and will profit from doing so is
fundamentally flawed. He suggested that companies that simply do everything
they can to boost profits will end up increasing social welfare.
Nevertheless, although social obligation was the dominant theme in the 1960s,
CSR issues were also considered by marketing academics by establishing the
relationships between social obligations and marketing functions as well as
broadening the scope of stakeholders. Such research has been developed
more recently and covered by cause-related marketing (e.g. Barone et al,
2008; Varadarajan & Menon, 1988), social sponsorships (e.g. Simmons &
Becker-Olsen, 2006), environmental marketing (e.g. Zeithaml & Zeithaml,
1984; Menon & Menon, 1997), communicating with consumers concerning
CSR issues (e.g. Caruana & Crane, 2008), and corporate reputation (e.g.
Berens et al, 2005; Brown & Dacin, 1997; Lichtenstein et al, 2004; Wagner et
al, 2009). The development of CSR theme into stakeholder relationships
concerns the organisations support of stakeholders needs.
33
responsiveness, Ackerman (1973) built on the stakeholder approach by
analysing the concept as monitoring and assessing of environmental
conditions, attending to stakeholder demands, and designing plans and
policies aimed at increasing positive impact both to the organisation and
society. Steiner (1971), on the other hand, extended the meaning and specific
circumstances under which CSR might be interpreted and applied by
presenting models for determining the social responsibilities of business
(p.157). Overall, the 1970s saw an increase in the mention of corporate social
performance (CSP), particularly by Sethi (1975) as well as CSR (Carroll,
1977). In support of the concepts of stakeholder approach and applicability of
CSR which started in the 1970s, it became more established in the 1980s with
Wartick and Cochran (1985).
34
performance” by the firm; whilst “legal, ethical and discretionary” were labelled
“concern for the society”. In other words, the economic responsibility of the
firm was not considered as a social responsibility, whereas the three non-
economic components determined the social orientation of the firm.
The following discussions picks up on three main concepts that have shaped
what CSR is today; Corporate Social Performance (CSP), Stakeholder Theory
and Business Ethics.
35
The Principles of
social responsibility
36
organisation. Some stakeholders are directly involved in the organisation’s
productive activities, for example, employees and managers. Other
stakeholders support organisational activities indirectly, for example, investors
and strategic partners. The third set of stakeholders operates at the periphery
of the organisation for a variety of reasons, e.g. customers, regulators,
residents and pressure groups. As stated by Ferrell (2004), the relationship an
organisation will have with its stakeholders is dependent on the diversity of
stakeholders, the definition of what is held important by these stakeholders,
and the stakeholder’s level of influence on organisations decisions.
37
Pressure groups Customers
Strategic
Investors
Partners
Firm
Employees
Business Ethics
Business ethics views the extent to which business practice can be considered
as socially responsible (Jones, 1995). This questions how genuine an
organisation’s social activities are and whether they are done out of self-
interest. Swanson (1995) argued about whether organisations are simply
conforming to social norms and practising paternalism, such as philanthropic
donations and employee-friendly policies, respectively. Steiner and Steiner’s
(2000) definition of CSR bordered on business ethics by arguing that social
responsibility is the duty an organisation has to create wealth by using means
38
that avoid harm, protect or enhance societal assets. Earlier, Zenisek (1979)
expressed concerns about the lack of empirical support to CSR concepts, thus
developed a new model of CSR which reflected a fit between “business ethics”
and “societal demands and expectations” based on research in CSR over four
time periods, which would facilitate measurement and further research.
Although Zenisek’s contributions were insightful, there was not a definition of
CSR per se and the new model did not lead to measurement attempts.
Therefore in 1979, in an attempt to develop a complete definition of CSR,
Carroll proposed a four-part definition of CSR which captured all business
responsibilities that went beyond “making profit” and “obeying the law”. Carroll
attempted to bridge the gap in previous definitions of CSR by capturing a full
range of responsibilities of business to society and thus, offered the following
definition:
Carroll’s (1979) main argument at this point was that for managers and
organisations to engage in being socially responsible, they needed to have: 1)
a basic definition of CSR; 2) an understanding of the issues for which a social
responsibility existed; and 3) the specification of the philosophy of
responsiveness to the issues (p.499). This definition was also embedded in
the conceptual model of CSP (Carroll, 1979) discussed earlier. It is worth
noting that it is this definition which was used in the empirical study by
Aupperle et al (1985) to initially test and confirm the priority responsibilities of
a firm. This proposal was later revisited and presented as Carroll’s CSR
pyramid (1991).
The 1990s saw the focus of literature on how the concept of CSR could work
in practice. Wood (1991) identified two sets of managerial processes useful to
achieve a proactive socially responsible stance, that is, issues management
and environmental assessment. These are aspects of management that
modern businesses today claim are being increasingly used. As alternative
themes emerged and the expansion of CSR continued, focus shifted from the
39
“what” of CSR (the conceptualisation phase) to the “how” (the implementations
phase), therefore assessing how the concept works in practice. This shift in
focus on CSR is presented in Figure 3.3.
40
Management
1990s practice
1980s Business
ethics Business
operations /
social activities
Business
Stakeholder operations /
relationships social
activities Moir (2001)
1970s Matten & Crane (2005)
Business
operations Wood (1991)
Economic Business
power Carroll(1991)
operations
1960s
Jones (1980)
Social Aupperle,Carroll &
Economic Business welfare
power operations Hatfield (1984)
1950s
Heald (1970)
Business Sethi (1975)
Business Davis (1960)
policies operations Carroll (1979)
Frederick (1960)
CSR
Bowen (1953)
Heald (1957)
For the purpose of this study, CSR is focused on organisational activities that
exceed minimum requirements such as economic and legal, at a given
moment in time (McGuire, 1963; Carroll, 1979). In addition, it embraces
“corporate citizenship” which includes the discretionary component of CSR,
otherwise known as philanthropy, culminating in the four components of CSR
– economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic – which captured the entire range
of business responsibilities depicted in the pyramid (see Figure 3.5). It is also
noted that these responsibilities already existed in previous definitions,
however, ethical and philanthropy had become increasingly significant in
recent years. In support of the pyramid, Carroll (1991) summed up, “The CSR
firm should strive to make profit, obey the law, be ethical, and be a corporate
citizen” (p.43). To date, a number of well used definitions have captured similar
notions of this concept of CSR.
43
financial aspects in terms of business operations; the social dimension refers
to the relationship between business and society; the stakeholder dimension
refers to stakeholder groups; and the voluntariness dimension refers to the
actions not obliged by law.
However, the most commonly described, used and dominant CSR model in
the developed countries is that of Carroll’s pyramid (Crane & Matten, 2004),
which is also the rationale for choice. What this model attempts to do is to
address the needs of practicing managers who have the responsibility of
implementing CSR and measuring its impact by proposing relative weightings
on the four functions identified as having an impact on an organisation’s
approach to CSR. The needs of managers led to the proposed mechanism of
using a need hierarchy model patterned after Maslow’s (1954) need hierarchy.
This organisational need hierarchy suggests that the economic, legal, ethical
44
and philanthropic functions need to be fulfilled by organisations in order of
priority.
45
Figure 3.4: Systematic Literature Review
46
Taking a managerial approach, the model was designed to capture the range
of society’s expectations of businesses by categorising them. Therefore, the
pyramid has been useful to managers for seeing the different obligations that
society expects from businesses. It emerged as part of the on-going
deliberations on the meaning of CSR, which fundamentally captured the idea
that businesses have some responsibilities to society beyond making profits
for their shareholders. Therefore, the model captured the expectations that
society has of organisations, using the approach of a four-part construct which
include businesses’ fulfilment of economic, legal, ethical and discretionary or
philanthropic responsibilities. Although this model was created in 1979, Carroll
first presents the model as a pyramid in 1991 (see Figure 3.5) According to
the model, CSR constitutes four kinds of social responsibility: economic (to
make profit), legal (to obey the law), ethical (to be ethical) and philanthropic
(to be a good corporate citizen). The model categorises the different
responsibilities hierarchically in order of decreasing importance. The most
fundamental and highest priority responsibility is economic on which all the
other responsibilities are predicated. The expectation at this point is for the
organisation to operate a successful business. In addition, businesses have to
work within the framework of law, hence, the next layer in the pyramid. Legal
responsibilities require the organisation to recognise that law is society’s
codification of right and wrong, hence, to obey the law of the country is
essential. The third is ethical responsibility which is defined as those activities
the conduct of which is not codified by law and is expected by a society. Ethical
responsibilities address the obligations of the organisation to act ethically by
doing what is right, just and fair. The top and final layer is philanthropic
responsibility which is discretionary in nature. This responsibility requires the
organisation to be a good corporate citizen by contributing resources to the
community and improving quality of life. According to Geva (2008), prevailing
social norms and expectations provide the external criteria against which
corporate performances can be measured. Overall, the pyramid purports that
businesses that deem themselves socially responsible should simultaneously
fulfil this set of obligations, taking into consideration their decreasing
importance.
47
Figure 3.5 has been speculatively argued as not being directly relevant in the
African context. Visser (2008) suggests the following reasons: 1) The differing
emphasis of importance of the four layers of Carroll’s pyramid in the African
context; 2) The lack of comprehensive scope of coverage of the relationships
between businesses and society in Africa; and 3) The lack of evidence of how
Carroll’s pyramid is relevant in the African context.
According to Visser (2008), the order of layers which are taken as an indicator
of the relative importance given to the various responsibilities may not
necessarily be in the same order for Africa. This argument is supported by
Crane and Matten (2004) who conclude in their discussion on CSR in a
European context that, “all levels of CSR play a role in Europe, but they have
different significance, and furthermore are interlinked in a somewhat different
manner” (p.46). Secondly, with recent trends towards integrating the social,
economic and environmental aspects of CSR, the model does not address the
latter, which may be relevant in the African context. Thirdly, he argues that
Carroll’s pyramid might not be a useful and realistic model to use to explain
operations and sustainability in Africa. This is based on the notion that most of
the research on the pyramid has been in the American context, and several
studies suggest that other influencers such as culture could play a part in the
perception of CSR priorities (Burton et al, 2000; Edmondson et al, 1999;
Pinkston, et al, 1994). Additionally, the nature and representation of the
components may differ. However, Visser’s investigation on how CSR
manifests itself in an African context is not supported with empirical evidence.
Therefore, the claim of the complex dynamics that are at play in the African
context, provide scope for development and leave a gap for empirical
research.
48
and companies. Thus, CSR is largely market-driven and responsive to the
concerns of affluent stakeholders. Nevertheless, it begs to question whether
this is any different in the context of developing economies. The extent of the
challenge for CSR in Africa is determined by the factors that influence the
interaction between businesses and society in a manner that needs to be
captured more appropriately. The reason for considering CSR practices from
a developing-country perspective is to explore whether the influencers of CSR
are similar or different considering the differing variables that operate within
this environment. Additionally, it is worth considering whether and how these
influences of CSR impact the relationship between the organisation’s social
responsibilities and its stakeholders, as discussed in Section 3.2.2. Therefore,
exploring CSR practices by domestic banks in Ghana provides evidence of the
nature of CSR represented and set in the context of a developing country.
In sum, the simplicity of Carroll’s model does not allow for the potentially
complex and fluid nature of CSR in the developing region of Africa to be
captured, for example, there is the issue of complexities of differing cultures
and sub-cultures, or how to reconcile job creation and environmental issues
(Visser, 2008). There are also potentially wide variations in the functional
approach of CSR. For instance, Ofori and Hinson (2007) compared the
adoption of social responsibilities of multinational firms with those of
49
indigenous Ghanaian firms and found that the former are more strategic in
their approach to CSR. Hence, if the relative priorities of CSR in developing
countries are different from those of the developed countries, then an
appropriate CSR framework has to support these differences. Therefore, this
study provides a scope for research and development, contributing to
knowledge by investigating CSR practices within the context of African
businesses.
50
in the world that are classified as developing fall in some parts of Asia, Latin
America and Africa .
Africa is a continent that consists of two distinct regions; the Arabic region in
the north, commonly referred to as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA),
and the majority of the continent, referred to as sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).The
development challenges in Africa are identified by the World Bank (2009a) and
include issues such as poverty with the largest increase in people living on
less than $1.25 per day; highest population growth in the world, low level of
literacy with only 60% of children completing primary education, and greater
regulatory and administrative burdens for businesses.
Another important factor defining the context of CSR on the continent is the
diverse nature of its culture which is seen and applied in a communal context.
Despite generally negative press, the debate over Africa’s future is higher up
on the global agenda. Commission for Africa (2005) published a report Our
Common Interest, which calls for improved governance and capacity building,
the pursuit of peace and security, investment in people, economic growth and
poverty reduction, and increased fairer trade. From 2000 to 2008, foreign
direct investment into SSA increased more than seven-fold (World Bank,
2010). Additionally, in recent years there has been a strong growth in
economic terms despite a global slowdown. The region’s GDP growth was up
51
by 4.8% in 2012 (4.9% in 2011) (World Bank, 2013). Poverty rates also fell by
1% per year in the last decade (Africa’s Pulse: World Bank, 2013). These slight
improvements in the region can be attributed to improved macroeconomics
policies, political stability, opportunities created by new sectors such as the
Oil, Gas and Minerals sector and a robust growth in non-mineral and services
sectors.
CSR in Ghana
According to Jamali (2007), there has been curiosity amongst academics
about understanding CSR in the light of vastly different economic, social and
cultural conditions. Previously, Jones (1999) highlighted the importance of the
national socio-cultural and economic environment as variables influencing
CSR practice and understanding, which justifies the context of this study from
the viewpoint of similar challenges faced in developing Ghana.
Therefore, it is not surprising that in 2005, the debate on Africa’s future took
centre-stage in the publication of Our Common Interest, the report of the
Commission for Africa (2005). This was followed up by yet another report, Still
Our Common Interest (2010), which was launched to review what had
happened in Africa in the previous five years, and called for efforts to convert
52
unprecedented economic opportunities into poverty reduction and
development. These socio-economic issues are similar across the region and
representative of the sub-Saharan region, and indeed Ghana. According to
Visser (2008), this transformation process requires the key role of businesses
to contribute to the framework of CSR. No doubt, the scale of social needs that
exists in the region presents a challenge for CSR in Ghana too, with life
expectancy in Ghana an average of 60 years (World Bank, 2010), Gross
National Income per capita at an average of $1,760 (World Data Bank, 2013)
and a literacy rate of 71.5% (CIA World Fact Book, 2010).
53
Economic Summit 2002 in Durban, discussing the links between CSR and
New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), the following was stated:
54
CSR is largely influenced by individual and societal ethical values (Ofori,
2005).
55
and Clement-Jones, 2005), and those who view it as providing access and
legitimacy to organisations within a society. Thus, the latter addresses the
stakeholder perspective which acknowledges integration between business
and society, rather than separate entities (Wood, 1991). Supporters of the
stakeholder view argue that businesses are active partners in a world of
increasing scarcity and dwindling resources (Kuado & Hinson, 2005) within an
environment with potential complexities in the context of a developing
economy such as Ghana.
56
3.7 Research Gap
The discussion on the dynamics and relationships between business and
society and how this affects CSR practice in banks within a developing country
context, leads the researcher to question whether the current conception and
models of CSR in developed countries are adequate for describing CSR in
developing countries. Thus, the nature of CSR within the context of a
developing African country is explored. Additionally, the most popular and
dominant model – Carroll’s (1991) CSR pyramid – which is almost entirely
based on research in the Western context is explored for its adequacy,
usefulness and representativeness within the Ghanaian context. Although
there was scant empirical evidence to support his argument, Visser (2006)
contested that the relative emphases on various responsibilities in developing
countries differ from that of Carroll’s classic pyramid due to the complex nature
of the developing economies. In addition, Wood’s (1991) suggestion for a more
relevant framework being based on specific businesses or industries focused
on a particular economy provides an evident gap in knowledge for this
research which leads to the primary research question:
The key issues that surface from the primary question shapes the main
objectives of the study as follows:
57
Thus, using multiple case study approach within the context of the banking
sector in Ghana provides the foundation for in-depth research to contribute to
knowledge in CSR in Africa.
3.8 Conclusion
As a result, the context of this research study sets out to explore and examine
the nature of CSR practice of domestic banks in the context of a developing
country of Ghana. The existing gap in the research is presented from the
perspective of a developing country, the financial sector and domestic banks.
By understanding the current gap in CSR literature, and establishing the
current debate on the dynamics between business and society in a developing
economy, there is an opportunity to contribute to knowledge by investigating
CSR in the said context.
58
4 Research Methodology
4.1 Introduction
This chapter addresses the philosophical approach and illustrates the
methodology used to investigate CSR in Ghana within the context of a case
study approach, using domestic banks. The research gap arises from the
notion that CSR in Africa is one of the less well-understood phenomena. This
study therefore contributes to knowledge in CSR by using case studies in
Ghana as the context within which CSR is examined in depth.
It fully details the overall research strategy and design, as well as justifying the
research method chosen which includes the methods of data collection and
analysis. Additionally, it discusses the ethical considerations taken, and
articulates the researcher’s journey through this study, reflecting on personal
learning experiences.
The researcher engaged in investigating the nature of CSR and the priority
responsibilities of CSR practice in Ghanaian banks. The research question of
“What role does CSR play in the domestic retail banks of Ghana?” was
informed by the understanding that Carroll’s CSR pyramid is one of the most
dominant model in the field of CSR which determines the key responsibilities
of CSR practice by managers in developed regions such as North America
and Europe. The current study’s conceptual framework recognises the socio-
economic complexities of developing regions such as SSA which questions
the adaptation of this dominant model in the context of a representative
country such as Ghana. Thus, the research investigates and interprets the
phenomenon of CSR practice and responsibilities in Ghanaian banks and the
feasibility of Carroll’s pyramid in the context of the banking sector in Ghana;
the “units of investigation” being domestic retail banks with significant
shareholding from either Ghanaian individuals or businesses.
59
The objectives of this chapter are:
i. To establish the philosophical assumptions underpinning the research
ii. To establish the research objectives
iii. To present the research strategy adopted for this study, a multiple
case study approach
iv. To discuss the methods of data collection and analysis
v. To discuss the procedures taken in data management to ensure
robustness and rigour in the data analysis.
60
Figure 4.1: Research Design
Philosophical Assumptions
As presented by Bateson (1972, p.314), the researcher is “bound within a net
of epistemological and ontological premises which – regardless of ultimate
truth or falsity – become partially self-validating”. Thus, the initial aim of the
research design relate how the research was shaped and why it was shaped
by social constructivism which may also be referred to as the interpretive
paradigm (Denzin & Lincoln, 2011; Mertens, 2010), employed. Mertens (2003,
p.139) indicates that “a paradigm is a conceptual model of a person’s
worldview, complete with assumptions that are associated with that view”. The
interpretive approach assumes that as people interact with the world around
them they create and associate subjective meanings to them. Thus, the
researcher attempts to understand the phenomenon in question through
interpretation by accessing the meanings participants assign to the said
phenomenon (Orlikowski & Baroudi 1991). The use of case study allowed an
in-depth investigation and interaction with participants within the organisations
who had a view on the concept of CSR based on their professional
experiences. Thus, the philosophical underpinning of the study was based on
how the researcher sees the world in context and acts in it, and the chosen
61
interpretive paradigm holds beliefs that guided the researcher’s actions and
the whole process (Guba, 1990a, p.17). This was further buttressed by the
assumptions adapted from Creswell (2003) that the researcher was seeking
an understanding of the phenomenon of CSR practice in the world in which
manager’s work. The process by which this was done was through qualitative
research for which, according to the constructivist perspective, the researcher
obtained information for study mainly from the participants’ views and
documentary evidence regarding the research issues.
The rationale for social constructivism stems from the study of the
phenomenon in its natural environment, and the viewpoint that the
researcher’s knowledge of reality comes from the domain of human actors and
actions. This is essential to the use of case study approach which signifies the
context within which the study has been framed and the phenomenon fully
understood. Constructivist epistemology also assumes that the claim of
knowledge arises from interaction with a human community, and is influenced
by the historical and social perspective or culture (Crotty, 1998) that operates
in the world in question. The development and construction of meanings were
thus done by engaging with the world being interpreted (Mertens, 1998),
hence, the development of varied and complex meanings of the experiences
of individuals, objects and/or things of the phenomenon. Thus, the information
obtained was mostly through interaction and discussions with managers within
the context of their roles in the banks and the questions were rather general
and open-ended to allow participants to freely construct their opinions,
providing the researcher with a better understanding of the phenomenon. The
interpretivist assumption acknowledged that the researcher’s background also
partly played a role in shaping and influencing some of the interpretations from
the researcher’s own personal, cultural and historical experiences (Creswell,
2013). Therefore, the reality discovered by the researcher is not entirely
objective, and neither can it be replicated by others (Walsham, 1993). The
interpretive approach to exploring the relationship between theory and practice
within the given context is that the researcher cannot assume a neutral stance.
The role of interpretation in this process lent itself to a qualitative study which
particularly placed a demand on the researcher in terms of what questions
62
were asked and the interpretations brought to them based on the researchers’
engagement.
Although this study relied primarily on data which captured the experiences
and views of individual managers involved in the phenomenon, it also
concurrently examined evidence from secondary data. Thus, constructing
meanings and interpretations from individuals’ perspectives and experiences
was significantly supported by textual and content analysis of documentation
which added to the rigour in analysis. This consideration concerns the “nature
of reality” (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009, p.4), also referred to as the ontological
perspective of constructivism where the world is internally constructed by
humans creating meanings individually and collectively in the world from
people’s experiences. Due to the nature of what is considered as real, the
research was done subjectively as it was from the perspective of what people
said about their experiences, and the researchers’ interpretations of these
words. Therefore the researcher did not have the liberty of taking a stance on
the interpretation. Interpretivism allowed the researcher to inductively
generate and develop emergent ideas and patterns of meanings from the data
(Maylor & Blackmon, 2005). In practice, however, this approach did not
eliminate initial and recurrent actions of deduction as it was a cyclical process.
The researcher acknowledged the tensions between inductive and deductive
approaches which perhaps could be described as a hybrid between the two
approaches of inductive and deductive research to investigating and
interpreting the research. The purpose of this knowledge construction did not
have any action agenda for reform or change that affects the lives of
participants, the organisations in which they work, or even the researcher’s life
(Mertens, 2003) – described by Creswell (2013) as a transformative
framework. The researcher did not seek to achieve this but rather the objective
was to capture and present a normative framework.
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Research Objectives
The gap identified in the literature review led to the following research
objectives:
Research Strategy
The research process involved the strategy of inquiry being used which is a
multiple case study approach comprising three cases. Figure 4.1 shows the
research design which presents a clear focus on the research question, the
purpose of the study, “what information most appropriately will answer specific
research questions, and which strategies are most effective for obtaining it”
(LeCompte & Preissle, 1993, p.30).
The case study approach has historically been used by social scientists, and
its origins are traced back to anthropology and sociology (Hamel et al, 1993).
It has particularly been popular in disciplines such as psychology (Freudian),
medicine (case analysis of a problem), law (case law) and political science
(case reports). However, more recently, it has been equally applicable in the
areas of marketing communications, management and organisation studies.
The case study approach is presented as a strategy of inquiry, a methodology
or a comprehensive research strategy (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005; Merriam,
1998; Yin, 2009). According to Yin (2009), case study research involves the
study of a case within a real-life, contemporary context or setting. On the other
hand, Stake (2005) states that case study research is a choice of what is to be
studied and not a methodology, that is, a case within a bounded system, bound
by time, place and activity. In the context of this study, the researcher chose
Yin’s (2009) view of case study approach as a methodology, that is, a type of
design in qualitative research that may be an object of study, as well as a
product of the inquiry. Therefore, the study was of multiple cases, referred to
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as units of investigation, within the context of practising CSR in the banking
sector of Ghana. According to Bell (1993), the case study approach is an
umbrella term for a family of research methods having in common the decision
to focus on an inquiry around a specific instance or event. Therefore, this
choice of strategy allowed for multiple sources of detailed evidence or data to
be used. Case studies are also different from other approaches because of
their specific, in-depth focus on a phenomenon in its naturalistic setting as an
object of interest in its own right (Daymon & Holloway, 2011). For example,
Yin (2009) uses both quantitative and qualitative methods in case study
development and discusses explanatory, exploratory and descriptive
qualitative case studies. In addition, Stake (1995) presents a step-by-step
approach to multiple case study analysis to provide rich illustrations. Thus, the
use of case studies and multiple data sets – documentation and interviews –
in investigating the phenomenon of CSR enabled the researcher to have an
in-depth understanding of CSR practices within each unit and differences and
similarities, as well as anomalies between the cases. This occurred through
discussions which explored the data whilst enfolding the literature to either
support or dispute the discussions. Secondly, a quantitative method in the form
of frequency counts was used in the textual analysis to support the primary
data analysis. The systematic literature review, revealed evidence that the
research methods used to explore CSR in developing countries were
predominantly single or multiple case study research strategy with mixed
research methods combining both qualitative and quantitative methods as
evidenced in Appendix E. Those studies that went for one type of research
method were mostly qualitative semi-structured interviews for organisation-
oriented studies or quantitative surveys for stakeholder-oriented research. In
this regard, the choice of research strategy and method were consistent to
existing peer reviewed studies. The focus of this approach supports the
argument of the contextual nature of the study of CSR, and the requirement
for rich insights into specific cases bound by specific contexts.
Thus, the researcher relied on adapting Stake (1995) and Yin (2009) to form
the distinctive features of this multiple case study approach. This included the
identification of the specific cases or units of investigation and the intent of
65
conducting the cases; a cyclical process of deductive and inductive analysis
of qualitative data sets; the use of emergent themes or issues, and recognising
relationships in each case and across the cases; and forming conclusions at
the end using “assertions” (Stake, 1995) or building “patterns” or
“explanations” (Yin, 2009). Ultimately, the inquiry considered each case as a
whole entity before analysing with the other cases (Ragin, 1987; Huberman &
Miles, 1984; Eisenhardt, 1989; Corley & Gioia 2004; Gioia et al, 2010). This
process was good at finding specific and grounded patterns common or not to
the cases. The use of comparative analysis also attempted to answer the
questions of “what” and “how” as well as serve to decipher the similarities or
differences with the other cases (Neuman, 2000).
Research Ethics
The researcher initially had informal conversations with the three selected
banks, two of which sent an email to give their consent to engage (see
Appendix C). The third was by verbal consent only. Confidentiality and
anonymity was observed by having a standard ethics consent which is a
written agreement upfront on what the working relationship and expectations
would be (see Appendix D). The researcher therefore provided a letter
stipulating these to each of the managers prior to the interviews. The banks
agreed on being privy to the outcomes of the research, which might be of
interest to them.
Participants were not placed under any form of duress by ensuring that
meeting times were properly planned and mutually convenient times
scheduled for both parties. In the study, personal data such as full names of
managers were withheld save for their job titles which were relevant to the
research.
The nature of the research did not involve sensitive topics or vulnerable
people, hence, not requiring the researcher to make special considerations.
However, the researcher was aware that some bank documentation may have
to be kept private, although during the collection of data this particular issue
did not arise.
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4.3 Multiple Case Study Approach
The multiple case study design enabled the researcher to explore the
phenomenon of CSR practice in different cases. The case study design in this
research is adapted from Yin’s matrix (2009), being a Type 3 multiple-case
study, using multiple units of analysis (in this study, is sometimes referred to
as units of investigation). However, in the qualitative context of this research,
the units of analysis, which has a positivist connotation, are referred to as units
of investigation. According to Bhadwarj (2010), a unit of investigation may be
a person, a family, an institution or a physical object or a phenomenon or any
other thing that forms a basis for collecting data. Therefore, the definition of a
unit of investigation in this study is the case of a Ghanaian domestic retail
bank. Each unit of investigation represents a real-life, contemporary setting in
the banking sector of Ghana practising CSR during the period between 2008
and 2013. The primary advantage for choosing this design is the ability for it
to provide a basis for the application of careful logical comparisons across
three cases.
CSR practice in each bank was explored through detailed, in-depth data
collection from multiple sources of qualitative methods (Hartley, 2004; Yin,
2009). The distinct advantage of this multiple case study was that the varied
evidence from multiple cases is often considered convincing and robust
(Herriott & Firestone, 1983). On the other hand, the more cases studied, the
greater the lack of depth in any single case and the more the overall analysis
is diluted and generalised (Creswell, 2007). There is variation in the literature
on the number of cases that is acceptable for this approach, leaving the
researcher with some flexibility of choice on number of cases. Whereas Yin
(2009) stipulates up to thirty cases, and Stake (1995) states that one or more
cases will suffice, according to Eisenhardt (1989), there is no ideal number of
cases to use for a multiple case study. Indeed, there are various arguments
about the number of cases appropriate in the research design. As argued by
Farquhar (2012), more is not necessarily better in determining the number of
cases. Thus, the researcher chose to study three cases, which is an
acceptable number based on the variation in literature, and supported by
Maylor and Blackamon (2005) who advise a study between two and eight
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cases. The choice of cases in this multiple case study was particularly well-
suited to theory investigation; hence, choice was less based on numbers but
rather based on those cases that are suitable for persuasion (Sigglekow,
2007). Suitability of cases was based on those that can or cannot confirm a
theory, and offer a challenge to an established theory (Piekkari et al, 2009).
The theory is based on the conceptual framework that I have built in Chapter
3, which goes beyond the CSR pyramid.
The cases chosen are distinguished in terms of their location, size, and the
intent of the case analysis. As shown in Table 4.1, three cases were chosen:
UT Bank, Fidelity Bank, Access Bank. These cases were purposefully selected
to show varying perspectives on the issue of CSR practice, and an opportunity
for the researcher to replicate the procedures for each case. The Case Study
Protocol in Figure 4.2 interprets the process that was taken in the data
collection and analysis.
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Figure 4.2: Multiple Case Design Protocol – Integrative Approach
Source: Adapted from Eisenhardt (1989) and Stake (1995)
Selection of cases
The selection of the three cases was informed by the case study methodology
literature which argues that case selection in multiple case designs is
dependent on the conceptual framework that specifies the conditions under
which the phenomenon of interest is likely to be found (Eisenhardt, 1989).
Thus, the cases selected were appropriate and suitable for illuminating and
extending relationships and logic among constructs (Eisenhardt, 1989).
Additionally, selection of appropriate cases helped control extreme variations
as well as define limits for generalising the findings. In other words, the
researcher did not necessarily want a sample of domestic retail banks with
varying social contexts, so that in-depth insights could be gained within-case
analysis and across-case analysis (Eisenhardt, 1989), thus, analytical
conclusions could be drawn about CSR.
The process of selection was purposeful sampling (Patton, 2003). The cases
were particularly suitable for providing insight and exploring the relationships
of the constructs (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007), as they illustrated CSR
69
practice and their priority responsibilities which formed the theoretical feature
the researcher was concerned with. Sampling for qualitative research involves
small numbers, embedded in the notion of being in depth and within context
(Miles & Huberman, 1994). The process of selection is illustrated in as
illustrated in Figure 4.3. Thus, the rationale which drove purposeful sampling
of three cases or units of investigation in this research was to fulfil the research
objective of the study (Patton, 2003) and generate particular insight into the
research question. According to Flvbjerg (2006), the choice of cases can be
identified by looking at those that are either “most likely” or “least likely” to
clearly confirm, refute or challenge the phenomenon. This information-oriented
selection of cases (Farquhar, 2012) are referred to as critical cases (Flyvbjerg,
2006), which aided the researcher in obtaining information. These critical
cases of domestic banks in Ghana were identified as multiple empirical
settings to provide adequate and relevant information on their CSR practices.
Therefore, the researcher adapted analysis that could likely extend the
emergent theory, making the process of interest transparently observable
(Pettigrew, 1988).This process is also similar to Siggelkow’s (2007)
perspective which argues that cases are valuable for demonstrating the
importance of particular research questions, for inspiring new ideas and for
illustrating abstract concepts. As adapted from Yin (2009), the selection of
these cases was done under the assumption that they are able to act as
investigative sites to help sharpen, challenge and/or extend Carroll’s CSR
pyramid.
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Table 4.1 captured the boundaries and characteristics of the banks in terms of
their size and location, and characteristics which illustrate their similarities and
differences.
Source: Company annual reports (December 2011) and case interviews (December
2012 and April 2013)
UT Bank
The initial focus of UT in 1997 was centred on servicing the “unbanked”
informal sector, but UT’s services have evolved and extended to cover the
formal sector since 2006. The company became a universal bank in 2010 and
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was listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. UT claims to maintain an open
flexible policy that allows it to accommodate the financial needs of its
customers without prejudice. Products include various short-term loans,
working capital financing, business advisory services and trade financing to
SME’s (www.utbankghana.com).
Fidelity Bank
In 2009, Fidelity Bank became the twenty-second bank to be licensed as a
universal bank by the Bank of Ghana under the new Banking Act 2004 (Act
673) after operating as a discount house profitably for eight years. The bank
is owned by Ghanaian and foreign private investors, institutional investors
including Africa Development Bank, Social Security and National Insurance
Trust and its executives. Fidelity Bank has two corporate affiliates – Fidelity
Capital Partners Limited and Fidelity Asset Management Limited. Fidelity
Banks’ mission is to be among the top three banks in Ghana by 2013 based
on all key performance indicators and anchored on the company’s three key
pillars – their people, their service and processes, and return to stakeholders
(www.fidelitybank.com.gh).
Access Bank
Access Bank originated from Nigeria with presence in nine African countries
and the United Kingdom. Access Bank ranks amongst the top 20 banks in
Africa and the top 10 in West Africa by capital. The company started its
operations in Ghana in 2010 as a universal bank, with core values including
excellence, ethics, trust, teamwork, passion for customers and continuous
learning. Access has a clear CSR charter on the corporate website. The bank
claims to have a well-designed and integrated CSR strategy having the best
interests of their stakeholders at hand (www.accessbankplc.com).
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Secondary data: Archival records
The researcher gathered two hundred and ninety-two pages of secondary data
made up of archival material about each case (see Appendix A). The types of
documents collected for each case are summarised in Table 4.2. The archival
records listed were those that were identified by the researcher as relevant
because they presented an element of CSR, and those that were made
available by the banks, which fall into the category of possible sources for case
study research (Marshall & Rossman, 1989).
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Primary data: Interviews
The researcher interviewed the key informants identified in each bank. The
key informants chosen were senior and middle managers as the research
seeks to understand the management approach to CSR. They were identified
by contacting individuals who had strategic oversight and expertise roles
related to CSR. According to Ofori and Hinson (2007), an early study in Ghana
showed that directors of marketing, finance and human resources, as well as
the managing directors and their deputies of businesses in Ghana were better
informed about CSR practices in their organisations. In each case, the contact
information was provided by a colleague or personal introductions were made
mainly through the researcher’s alumnae contacts. For example, in one case,
the researcher was introduced to the relevant managers by the Director of
Finance; in another case, the researcher was introduced to the relevant
managers by the Corporate Counsel; and in the other case, the researcher
was provided contact details of the relevant managers by a personal friend
who did not work in the bank. The selection of interviewees was based on the
concept of management research which generally involves smaller groups of
informants who are selected on the basis of them having expert and particular
insight into the research question (Farquhar, 2012; Lahdesmaki & Siltaoja,
2010), hence in line with purposeful sampling.
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Table 4.3: Overview of Data Collection: Interview and archival data
Thus, the selection criterion used for key informants for each case was based
essentially on their job roles, as the primary question relates directly to
management practice and to provide an opportunity for managers to put
forward their views of the world on CSR practice in their organisation.
Therefore, senior managers who have direct responsibilities and oversight of
strategic decision-making and CSR practice in their companies were identified
as informants. They were chosen across two to three top management tiers,
meaning up to three participants were selected for each case according to
their roles as CEO/Director, Head of Corporate Affairs/Corporate
Communications, Brand Manager/Public Relations & Media Manager. It is
important to note that although the job roles are similar in terms of the
responsibilities of individuals, the job titles differed from case to case. The
choice of more than one manager per bank was to ensure that the debate was
fair and no relevant voice was excluded (Caputo, 1987).
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that although each case seemed to be at different stages, they were all
involved in some CSR practice or other, hence, they did meet the criteria.
The researcher set out to develop an interview guide as a tool to conduct the
semi-structured interview. An interview guide was preferable to an interview
questionnaire as it allowed the researcher to be guided by the participant’s
narrative and at the same time have structured content for each of the
interviews. This method is also appropriate for eliciting individual opinions,
feeling and opinions with in depth responses that capture both contradictions
and nuances of CSR.
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contextual nature of CSR meant that the nature of CSR in the context of this
study had to be understood. Therefore, identifying types of CSR practices was
key in the initial secondary data collection and analysis. This initial analysis
contributed to informing the development of interview guide.
The deductive aspect of the data collection which ensured depth and richness
of data meant giving some control to the participant, hence applying the
flexibility that an interview guide provides. Thus, the purpose of the interview
guide was to improve knowledge on CSR practice in each of the cases by
allowing a conversation to take place in a controlled manner. Hence, it was
planned and structured in deliberate half-scripted interview (semi-structured)
which focused on specific areas. This allowed the interview to be co-produced
by the researcher and the participant.
The designing of the interview guide was informed by both literature and the
initial analysis done on the secondary data. The researcher had to be clear
about what resource and information was available and what further
information was required. This process was adapted from Miles and
Huberman (1994) and Patton (1990). The empirical indicative material being
sought was derived from revisiting the research purpose and objectives posed
within the conceptual framework, in order to formulate the relevant questions,
and ensuring dovetailing of questions to answers (Kuhn, 1991). In other words,
the researcher had to establish what sort of questions to ask, how to ask them
and the order in which to ask them. The sequencing of questions is illustrated
in Figure 4.4 as adapted from Wengraf (2001) where interview questions (IQ)
were a breakdown of the theoretical question (TQ) which were derived from
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the central research question (CRQ) emerging from the research objective
(RO).
Open-ended questions using words like ‘what’ and ‘how’ and were used to
offer the interviewee an opportunity for a variety of responses in their own
words and style:
Researcher kept questions brief, simple and clear and avoided jargons,
abbreviations or acronyms.
78
stance. At the same time, ‘rambling’ was encouraged (Brewer, 2004: p320),
allowing the interviewee in certain cases to go off on a tangent in order to gain
a better insight or present the wider context of a relevant point being
discussed. The researcher in some cases used probes to encourage
participants to elaborate on their answers and provide further explanation to
confirm understanding.
The challenge in the improvisation of prompting questions was not only the
discipline required by the researcher to keep the responses relevant to the
subject, but also to be creative around how these questions provide in depth
information to create more knowledge and provide a better sense of
understanding.
The nature of this research presented large amounts of transcribed data which
took a large amount of time to complete, including reading, coding and
analysing.
Time
The selection of cases and conditions of engagement were confirmed in
February 2011. The research process of collating documentary data
commenced in May 2011 and ended in June 2011. This was followed by the
semi-structured interviews of management which took place between
December 2012 and April 2013. The researchers had to make three trips to
Ghana in order to complete this process – the first trip to collect the
documentary data, and the second and third were to conduct the interviews.
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went back and forth through the data types for each case looking for similar
and new patterns until the process was exhausted and no more new patterns
could be identified. The relevant phrases and statements were methodically
recorded, referenced and coded, case-by-case in order to permit credibility to
the quality of the study (Patton, 2010). The coded references were later used
along with the interview data for the second-order categorisation when the
latter had also gone through the process of first-order coding. Similar codes
were induced from the interview data, as well as new codes being identified
before progressing to the second-order categorisation. In accordance with
Clark et al (2010), the coding levels are illustrated in Table 4.4.
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Table 4.4: Frequency Measure of CSR Activities in Each Bank
Secondary data Number of counts
first-order codes
UT Access Fidelity
Giving resources (food and 9 3 1
equipment)
Giving money and raising funds 10 3 10
Giving employee time and skills 11 6 0
Positive impact on society and 8 2 1
investing in local community
Training 2 1 1
Employee welfare 0 1 0
Social inclusiveness 0 2 0
Sectors covered: Education; Health; Social welfare; Sports; Arts & Craft
According to the data, there was variation in the conduct of CSR across the
banks, which is interpreted further in the analysis in Chapter 5.
The interviews were conducted in the quiet of the informants’ offices in each
of the banks and recorded on an Android mobile phone recording application.
Each interview was then fully and manually transcribed by the researcher,
taking 48 to 100 hours to transcribe the interviews. This process allowed
complete immersion in the data. The audio recordings were listened to soon
81
after the interviews were done, which helped the researcher to take some
notes around the issues discussed whilst they were still fresh in the mind. The
transcriptions were also read through several times for greater familiarity with
the data. During this process, the researcher was able to identify matching
patterns from phrases and words which were then marked out.
The next process involved bringing order to the raw data by using analytical
procedures to transform them into something meaningful, thereby gaining
understanding (Gibbs, 2007). In order to ensure easy identification and
retrieval of data, each transcribed interview was labelled and filed both in hard
copy and electronically. After embarking on a two-day training course on
NVivo, the researcher started to upload the data into the software. After all the
data was uploaded, nodes based on the patterns previously identified were
created by grouping into named clusters all phrases or statements that
matched a particular pattern. It is noteworthy that NVivo was used mainly for
organising and managing the data, as the researcher felt the volume of data,
was small enough to be analysed manually.
4.6 Analysis
To establish the categories of data, thematic analysis was used as explained
by Boyatzis (1998, cited in Braun & Clark, 2001, p.79) as a “method for
identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data.” Thematic
analysis offers the researcher the flexibility of a rich, detailed and complex
account of data, as well as summarise key themes of a large body of data,
providing “thick” descriptions whilst highlighting similarities and differences
across the datasets to inform and challenge theoretical models (Gioia, 2004).
Thematic analysis is widely used by social scientists and as an accessible form
of analysis, as it is not “wedded to any pre-existing theoretical framework and
therefore it can be used within different theoretical frameworks” (Braun &
Clark, 2006, p.81).
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In constructing the emergent themes, data gathered from both the archival
sources and interview transcripts were used. The researcher engaged in each
unit of analysis a within-method (across multiple interviews) and between-
method (across archival and interview data sources) (Browning et al, 1995).
As a result, a combination of interview data supported by evidence from
archival data provided the majority of the codes in the three cases, although
some codes were supported only by interview data. This procedure of within-
case analysis enabled richer, in-depth and more reliable descriptions of each
case (Denzin, 1989; Graebner & Eisenhardt, 2004; Jick, 1979) and a means
of establishing construct validity (Yin, 2003). Thus, establishing the
appropriateness of inferences made on the basis of the information provided.
In circumstances in which data gathered from interviews were not clearly
consistent with what was learnt from the archival sources, this was discussed.
In addition, the processes of within-case analysis and across-case analysis
were conducted to ensure case study rigour (Golden-Biddle & Locke, 2007).
The process of ensuring case study rigour is discussed in detail further on.
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existing literature for concepts and frameworks to explain what was found in
the data. In order to investigate CSR responsibilities in the context of banks in
Ghana, the core principles of Carroll’s model were incorporated into the coding
scheme to explore its application within the context. Hence, the analysis began
with a loose idea of some predefined areas of interest – types of CSR activities
– which were explicitly looked for in the data (Lewins & Silver, 2007).
Throughout the whole process, it was important for the researcher to
acknowledge the tension between deduction and induction, which is similar to
Bateson’s (1972) argument for a combination of loose and tight thinking. The
approach to the process was mainly more inductive in the phase which
involved investigating the type of CSR practices and analysed a set of specific
pre-existing theory. However, it was the pre-existing theory which set the
researcher on this particular path of investigation in the first place. The
deductive reasoning was however, more evident at the stage where the
linkages of the evidence was being made with the CSR pyramid concept.
The process of coding was an important stage (Morse & Richards, 2002;
Hubermann & Miles, 1997) where the researcher had to make choices about
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suitable and accurate words to use to label the ideas or themes repeatedly
seen in the data. This was essential to organising the data and integral to
interpreting the phenomenon. The codes used for the initial analysis informed
the initial categorisation, however, further codes emerged. Some of the codes
were in vivo referring to words that the interviewees had used which had the
ability to take discussions to the world of the participants (Corbin, 2006a),
whilst others were ‘topic codes’ (Richards, 2005) which were those codes
where the researcher created a term to describe something that was revealed
in the data without an explicit word for description. For example, the word
‘giving’ represents all references that use the same word or imply the same by
mentioning words with similar meanings such as “philanthropy”, “donations”,
or “contributions”.
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Table 4.5: Data Structure
Credibility
Lincoln and Guba (1985) argue that credibility is one of the most important
indicators of establishing trustworthiness. In addressing the credibility of this
study, the researcher set out to portray the true picture of the phenomenon in
question. In other words, to ensure confidence, it was important to present
clarity on the consistency of the findings with reality.
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from UT and Access subsequently, which could potentially reflect a form of
bias in the selection of informants or culminate in unknown influences as noted
by Preece (1994). However, this was not a deliberate attempt to marginalise
– it was due to the fact they were not available for interviews in the very tight
time frames that the researcher had for interviews. Indeed, random sampling
of individuals could not have been used in this study due to the specificity and
limited number of relevant management level individuals involved, thus unable
to seek more insights of a wider group or general population. In terms of the
researcher familiarising themselves with the organisation, there were brief
initial meetings for introductions, understanding the operations of the bank and
for the collection of secondary data. The next meeting was for the interviews.
This limited time of interaction provided an initial familiarity with the
organisational culture and to have adequate understanding of the operations
of the organisation. However, it did not allow for the “prolonged engagements”
that is indicated by Lincoln and Guba (1985) and Erlandson (1996) whereby
the researcher becomes so immersed in the culture under scrutiny that
professional judgements are warped.
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reports and internal newsletters) and those produced externally but relating to
the banks (e.g. press cuttings). The researcher also seized the opportunity to
examine certain documents that were referred to by a couple of the informants
during the actual interviews, which provided further insight into the CSR
practice of the banks. For example, Access referred to video recordings (in CD
format) of the training seminars that were organised for the banking sector in
the trading of secondary bonds. Another example was the provision by Fidelity
of the CSR strategic framework that was developed by a CSR consultant as
evidence of the bank’s initial attempt to strategise CSR – which subsequently
failed. The comparable nature of the analysis (across case analysis) also
allowed for further triangulation of data and corroboration in order to exploit
more opportunities. Van Maanen (1983) supports the use of comparison to
seek more information. With regards to the collection of interview data,
according to Yin’s (1994) recognition of correct operational measures to use,
specific procedures were followed in designing the line of questioning in the
interview guide and the subsequent analysis of data of the semi-structured
interviews. The designing of the interview guide is discussed in Section 4.4
The use of an interview guide instead of a questionnaire was to provide
flexibility in the nature of questioning and to allow the researcher to probe
further for details wherever necessary. At the same time, it kept the structure
of the interview in place to ensure all the categories of questioning linked to
the research objectives were covered. In addition, each informant was given
an opportunity to confirm or refuse participation at the beginning of the
interview to ensure genuine participation and encouraged frank. A protocol
form (included in the interview guide) was then provided to be signed by
participant as evidence of consent (Appendix B).
Transferability
In addressing transferability, data triangulation was used by establishing
multiple (two or more) data sources to provide a more certain portrayal of the
phenomenon being studied (Jick, 1979). The process is illustrated in Figure
4.5 of multiple data sources used to establish or dispute the phenomenon. In
practice, emergent themes from the interview data were supported by the
secondary data (Bonoma, 1985). In accordance with Yin (2009), the use of
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different data sources shows how evidence converged and in reference to this
study, contributed to establishing emergent themes and patterns in an
objective manner and for the sake of credibility. This is confirmed by Bluhm et
al (2010) who state that for a study to gain impact; two or more data sets are
used for corroboration, and dependability. For example, this is especially
evident in the cases of all three banks regarding claims of donations and
contributions being a significant part of their CSR practices.
Additionally, the triangulation of the various data sources within and across the
cases (Beverland & Lockshin, 2003; Yin, 2009) as discussed earlier, was to
establish a degree of convergence (Jick, 1979). This was achieved through
critical investigation of the findings (Silverman, 2006) by using the process of
“enfolding with the literature” (Eisenhardt, 1989, p.544), which refers to closely
examining emerging theory with existing literature. This process aimed to
ensured that the causal relationships between the variables were sound and
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unbiased, other explanations of causal effect were ruled out (Farquhar, 2012),
rival explanations for the findings were debated (Patton, 1999) and negative
cases were dealt with (Beverland & Lindgreen, 2010). Thus, the researcher
was able to achieve some converging findings which contributed to theoretical
concepts and the phenomena of CSR with greater precision (Modell, 2009),
and confidence of the research (Wolfram Cox & Hassard, 2010). Thus, the
researcher was able to achieve some converging findings which contributed
to theoretical concepts and the phenomena of CSR with greater precision
(Modell, 2009), and confidence of the research (Wolfram Cox & Hassard,
2010). Therefore, where similar emergent results were identified at different
sources, findings were more credible. Finally, throughout the study, the
researcher ensured that cues were provided to manage expectations by
drawing out the scope of the study. This allowed the researcher to keep within
the boundaries to meet the research objectives.
In this study, the above question may not be the right one on the grounds that
the purpose of the multiple case study is not to make claims about un-research
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cases but rather to contribute to knowledge based on the findings of the
selected cases which is based firmly on the aims of the study.
Thus, whilst some critics suggest that generalization from case study research
is only tentatively possible and that it should be complementary to more
extensive research (Swanborn, 2010), others have asserted that the study of
multiple cases as opposed to single cases does create a basis for generalising
(Johnston et al, 1999; Leonard-Barton, 1990). Siggelkow (2007) sympathises
that in spite of the benefits that this style of research yields in the generation
of insights, there is still debate on the strength of rigour and contribution of this
type of research. Transferability was therefore achieved analytically within the
context of the multiple case study with research findings considered in the light
of being congruent with and/or connected to prior theory (Miles & Huberman,
1994; Yin, 2009). Hence, to extend and develop theory within context, strategic
case selection was conducted through purposeful sampling according to their
ability to provide revelatory insight (Yin, 2009) about the phenomenon under
study and within the confines of the context. The specific bounding of the
cases was made explicit to enable the findings of the study to be generalised
to theory as well as extended to similar contexts in future. Statements made
were illustrated by the evidence in the cases (Siggelkow, 2007), through the
evaluation of those findings with extant theory.
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Dependability
To enhance the quality of the study, whilst addressing transparency, careful
analytical procedures were also taken (Eisenhardt, 1989). In accordance to a
recognised template for qualitative research used by various researchers
(Hubermann & Miles, 1984; Eisenhardt, 1989; Gioia, 2010; Gioia & Corley,
2010), care was taken by the researcher to ensure the study’s dependability
by providing sufficient detail from the data in the written text (Farquhar &
Michels, 2013), supported by the use of tabulation to present the broader
information with clarity and transparency. Transparency is achieved through
the reporting of research actions which “talk the walk” (Gibbert & Ruigrok,
2010, p.725), thus developing a comprehensive data structure as evidence of
the process. The transparency of evidence of data structure also brought to
the fore any discrepancies and possible explanations (see Table 4.5) .
Additionally, according to Golden-Biddle and Locke (1993), written texts are a
form of rhetoric through which readers engage with the text to create
interpretations. Siggelkow (2007) confirms this by stating that a writer’s goal
should be to write a paper that readers find convincing. Thus, the
interpretations of the data were constructed as convincingly and transparently
as possible with snippets of detailed evidence, such as the actual statements
made by an interviewee, to convey credibility and persuasion. It was important
for the researcher that the informant’s voice was heard as part of the narrative.
Rosanna Hertz (1997) describes voice as:
Hence, the exact words of the informants were used – an opportunity to let the
informants speak for themselves. The words of the informants therefore
presented a basis for the researcher’s voice to be heard, which were the
interpretations – explanations and analyses of the informants’ words.
However, Geertz (1998) demonstrates that the researcher’s voice is rarely
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genuinely absent or hidden. Thus, knowing how to express the researcher’s
self and the ability to locate oneself deliberately within the texts was a
challenge. The use of “enfolding literature” served as one of the balances to
bolster the credibility. The presentation of the author’s inquiry of self will be
discussed in further detail in Section 4.8 (Reflexivity).
Confirmability
The concept of confirmability addresses the researcher’s concern of
objectivity. According to Patton (1990), there is the recognition of the challenge
of ensuring neutrality (objectivity) since the interview guide was designed by
the researcher. Thus, steps were taken as much as possible in this study to
ensure that the findings of this study are a result of the experiences and ideas
of the informants and not the preferences of the researcher. The role of
triangulation which has already been discussed has to be emphasised in its
contribution to confirmability by reducing the effect of researchers’ bias.
According to Miles and Huberman (1994), the extent to which the researcher
admits her own predispositions and the reasons underpinning the decisions
made on process and methods are addressed. Additionally, the researchers’
ability to show clarity in the process through a step-by-step approach, the
protocols put in place at various stages, the visual presentations and the
reflection presents an audit trail that confirms the trustworthiness of this study.
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Reflexivity is posited on the premise that “knowledge cannot be separated
from the knower” (Steedman, 1991) meaning, it involves thinking about who
has conducted and written the research, how and under what condition, and
the impact on value of the research (O’Reilly, 2009). The interpretation of
events involves critical thinking about the context and how these thoughts are
presented with an acknowledgement that the researcher was part of the world
being studied. As a result, it is written in the past tense with a rigorous sense
of partiality (Clifford & Marcus, 1986) and in the first person (Geertz, 1988).
The model adapted for this process was developed by Drevdahl et al (2002)
who provided a systematic process for reflection that consists of three phases:
assessment, implementation and dissemination. The first assessment phase
determines whether conditions are conducive to conducting the research by
assessing the personal readiness and condition of the researcher in a truthful
critique in participating in the research. During the implementation phase, the
researcher focuses on the research process – data collection and analysis
methods – paying particular attention to the rigour. Finally, at the dissemination
phase, the researcher provides insights that enhance the research process by
communicating findings to the academic community. On completion of this
phase, the researcher returns to the assessment phase with new inquiries
discovered to investigate.
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from a practitioner marketing consultant with a decade of academic
experience. My process of learning throughout the PhD degree is explored by
a reflective self-study, using a lifelong learning perspective (Jarvis, 2009). In
this narrative, the results reveal a four-year long journey from a PhD academic
staff to a fulfilled professional, whilst embracing the challenges and
opportunities of being a wife and mother of two young boys. The discussions
which are written in the first person as I reflect on my own lived experience
within the context of the research process, also sometimes highlight how my
lifetime of previous experiences influenced my learning.
My background
I embarked on a part-time PhD in CSR after ten years of being in industry as
a marketing practitioner and five years of being a lecturer in the same field. It
was at a time when I was finally certain I intended to continue my career path
in higher education. Although I acknowledged the fact that the doctorate
program would formally establish me as an academic, I was also very
interested in individual development and learning. I saw an opportunity to set
the stage on route to the world of academic publishing. As a result of having a
significant number of years of work experience both as a practitioner and
academic, I had established relationships with prior business associates, work
colleagues, faculty peers, and family and friends which framed the social
context within which my learning, development and progress took place
(Davenish et al, 2009; Sheitzer, 2009).
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previous experiences outside of the programme had meaningful influences on
how I perceived and learned from my experiences in my PhD programme.
Assessment Phase
The initial stage required a lot of reading of good quality journals to understand
the subject matter better and also decide on the focus of the research. There
was extant literature on CSR which posed both an opportunity and a
challenge. Although there was enough literature to trawl through, it took
several weeks of one journal article leading to another to start getting a sense
of an emerging story around the dearth of literature on CSR in developing
countries. However, the one article that served as light-bulb moment for me
was one authored by Wayne Visser in 2006 entitled “Revisiting Carroll’s
pyramid: an African perspective”. It is from this article that my research took
off.
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As a born and bred Ghanaian, with very little work experience in corporate
Ghana in my adult life (except for an internship in a graphic design studio in
my final year of my first degree), I engaged with this research having very little
notion on expectations from Ghanaian businesses. Therefore, my time of
interaction with the domestic banks proved to be insightful and sometimes
surprising. Prior to embarking on the long-haul flights to collect my data, I have
to make contact with the informants and book my appointments. I soon came
to realise that these appointments were by no means set in stone and the onus
was on me to ensure that they actually took place. The first lesson I learnt was
to ensure that once an appointment was booked with a manager, I kept
checking on regular basis that I was still in their diary until the last hour for the
interview – even this was not a guarantee. The realisation of this made me
continually nervous throughout my visits because until I had the interviewer in
their office ready to have a chat, there was the fear that circumstances could
change very quickly. My research was not a priority to them and so was easily
postponed. After a series of postponed interviews and two trips to Ghana, I
was able to speak all, but one of my informants. Secondly, I learnt to be patient
and allow myself a lot of time for an appointment due to the usually long waiting
times for the appointment. An appointment time was just the general period of
time and not the exact time. In one case, the manager I initially agreed to have
the interview with resigned and left the company before I could visit, and
neither notified neither me nor his replacement of my visit. This caused a delay
in getting another interview arranged as I had to go through the process of
introducing myself and awaiting agreement before progressing. In any case,
once I engaged with the banks, there was readiness to provide me with all the
relevant data I required for my research.
Implementation Phase
This stage assesses the peaks and troughs I experienced during data
collection and analysis.
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writing of the chapters. Inductive and deductive analysis, initially manual, and
then based on recommendation from peers at a conference, I had training to
engage with NVivo in organising my data. I was surprised by how much I had
to revisit data and didn’t realise that this was never going to be a linear
approach to data analysis. Although mentioned, the order of writing for a thesis
unfortunately under-represents some of the messiness involved in how the
themes and findings actually emerge from the data. The peaks for me at this
stage were when it was clear that I was making sense of the data and there
were themes emerging. However, there were moments when I had a total
block and could not get anywhere. Additionally, I had to make time for the all-
important dissemination points of writing conference papers related to my
research subject in order to solicit constructive feedback from academic peers
which were invaluable in shaping the direction of my thesis. During this time,
what kept me motivated and enthused was the fact that I was passionate about
the subject, which made me enjoy the process for the majority of the time.
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Table 4.6: Research Timeline
Period Process
December 2009 Developed draft of research proposal
March 2010 Submitted proposal for RS1 (including Ethics
Approval)
October 2010 RS1 approved to commence data collection
May – June 2010 Secondary data collection
July 2011 – June 2012 Writing: Literature review, Methodology, and
Analysis of secondary data
July 2012 Submitted RS4
September 2012 RS4 reviews received for revisions
October 2012 RS4 Transfer Seminar and Scrutiny approved
December 2012 – January Interview data collection (2 banks)
2013
April/May 2013 Interview data collection (1 bank)
June 2013 NVivo training
June – December 2013 Organising and analysing data
January – July 2014 Writing: Analysis, Discussions and Findings
September 2014 Completion and submission of 1st draft
October 2014 Feedback from supervisors and revisions
November 2014 Submission of 2nd revised draft
March 2015 Submission of 3rd revised draft
December 2015 Corrections, editing and proof-reading
February 2016 Submission of complete thesis
Dissemination Phase
One of the discussions my Director of Studies stressed at our very first
supervisory meeting at the beginning of the PhD programme was to ensure
that I disseminated my research as I progressed. Therefore, I started to identify
relevant conferences in the first instance that I could submit papers to. The
process of finding topics for the articles was relatively easy and
developmental, as they were based on the stage I was at with my research at
any particular time.
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Marketing Communications, International Colloquium of Place branding,
University Of Bedfordshire, and University of Ghana Business School. At the
colloquium, a working paper which was presented evolved into an article which
is currently under review for publication with the Qualitative Market Research
(QMR) international journal. My second and third year were the busiest for
presenting papers at conferences as I found the exposure and feedback a
useful and valuable input to how I shaped my research. The list of research
disseminated during the period of this study - conference papers and one
journal article publication is presented at the beginning of this document. The
process also gave me a sound understanding of how to write articles for the
academic community for peer review. Indeed, the process of writing articles
for conferences and publications was a learning curve in itself. Feedback from
expert academics and peers in similar fields helped to provide an even better
understanding of what I was trying to achieve in my dissertation, both from the
viewpoint of the content as well as the process e.g. methodology. In the
articles, I was also able to articulate the findings of my research, initially the
secondary data and then including the primary data.
4.9 Conclusion
The philosophical assumptions of this study informed the research strategy
and methodology of this study. The interpretivist approach ensured in-depth,
rich analysis and collection of data on the phenomenon, as well as a reflection
on the researcher’s experiences during the whole process.
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5 Findings: Within-Case Analysis
5.1 Introduction
This chapter covers within-case analysis which is an in-depth exploration and
description of each of the banks. The aim is to discern how the patterns or
themes emerge in each case to contribute to a CSR framework that captures
CSR practice in retail banks in Ghana. Hence, the choice of analysis is
influenced foremost by the purpose of study. In support of Stake (1995),
individual cases are of interest to the researcher both for their uniqueness and
their commonality. This creates an in-depth understanding and description of
the phenomenon under study within the particular case. This also ensures that
the contextual richness of each case is not stripped away. As Sandelowski
(1996) points out, “looking at and through each case in a qualitative project is
the basis” of analytical interpretations and generalisations (p.525). Thus,
recurring insights that develop into themes from one case sensitise the
researcher to similar information as it occurs in the other cases.
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2001; Mintzberg & Waters, 1982) to reach distinct propositions (Eisenhardt &
Graebner, 2007). The researcher does not intend to develop generalisations
that represent multiple accounts as there are only three cases in this case
study research. However, this does not rule out the possibility of conducting
this analysis in another similar setting.
In this section, each of the cases will be analysed thoroughly to explain and
understand the nature of CSR within each bank. See Tables 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3
at the end of the chapter for additional illustrative evidence of each case.
The vision of UT Bank Ghana Ltd is “Redefining Banking” and its mission is
“to be the preferred bank for businesses and individuals, and to provide quality
and outstanding products and services with speed and efficiency in order to
generate customer satisfaction and build shareholder
value”(utbankghana.com). UT Bank is registered on the Ghana Stock
Exchange, with their majority shareholding being their customers.
Departmental Function
The CSR function in UT Bank is part of the Corporate Affairs department,
which is led by a Group Head, Corporate Affairs, who is the direct report for
the Media & Public Relations Manager, assisted by a Corporate
Communications Officer and two other Communications assistants. It is
noteworthy that there has been a restructuring in the organisation since the
initial contact the researcher had three years ago in 2011. At the time,
informants were contacted to engage with this study – the Media & Public
Relations Manager and the Corporate Communications Officer – were the two
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top roles for the CSR function, which was part of the Marketing Communication
department. This department also had a Brand Manager, whose role was
horizontal to the Media & Public Relations Manager, with their direct report to
the Chief Executive Officer, UT Bank Ghana Ltd. Now, although the Media &
Public Relations Manager is still a senior management role, the direct report
is to Group Head, Corporate Affairs, who in turn reports to the CEO, UT
Holdings.
When asked what the function of this new department was, this is what the
senior manager said:
The colleague confirmed that her role assisted the senior manager in
implementing the departmental function:
“...I had to get complete scanning of the daily press by 11am today. I do
this every morning to send off to the executives on time. I am responsible
for writing the press releases and articles for the press with my manager.
I am also involved with CSR, and I try to look for ways the organisation
can practice CSR in the communities that we serve”. (Corporate
Communications Officer)
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“My manager and I – between us we are currently developing a CSR
document where I am responsible for the execution and she’s looking at
the formalities and strategy.” (Corporate Communications Officer)
In any case, this is the department and the team that drive the CSR agenda of
UT Bank. The decisions on CSR strategic direction and implementation are
made jointly by the Media & Public Relations Manager and the Corporate
Communications Officer.
Stakeholders
UT’s identification of stakeholders was quite generic, in terms of referring to
those who have an interest in the bank and without whose support the bank
cannot survive. In this context, interested groups are shareholders, investors,
employees, customers, suppliers, governments and communities that provide
the infrastructure, markets, laws and regulations.
When asked further to state whom their CSR activities impacted, there was
more clarification in terms of how their stakeholder clusters existed and the
particular overlaps. Interestingly, there was a significant overlap between
members of the community and their shareholders:
“We have a shareholder structure. We have the top 20, who are the
institutional shareholders. UT Bank shareholding is a broad one because
when we went public, we opened up to everyone – we went to the
markets and got the traders to buy shares. The last time we checked our
shareholders were over 9,800.” (Media & Public Relations Manager)
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This signifies an overlap of individual community market traders also being
shareholders implies that investing in communities impacts the very people
who have a financial interest in the bank, thus, justifying the use of their
money. Members of the community are encouraged to invest in the bank
because their lives have been positively impacted by the banks’ community
relations Additionally, this engagement is evidence to community stakeholders
that their money is put to good use:
“...our current CSR practice has given us a lot of goodwill with our people
– the customers and shareholders. They know that we are not wasting
their money. Time is past when we were private and sponsored the likes
of Miss Malika – a beauty pageant – as discussions clearly showed that
the bank was wasting money on girls flaunting their bodies. However,
with our community investments they are happy because they can see
that it’s impactful... indeed, our shareholders are the very people our
CSR is impacting.” (Media & Public Relations Manager)
There is a portrayal of reliance of the bank on the community and vice versa.
The other manager was supportive of the idea of the community contributing
to the success of the bank:
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manage our time, take breaks at certain intervals, sexual health, and so
forth?” (Corporate Communications Officer)
According to the data, there was very little perspective of the bank on
secondary stakeholders – those individuals or groups who are not essential
for the survival of the bank and do not directly influence it, but are affected by
the bank’s activities, for example, current and future generation stakeholders.
It was, however, implied in discussions around the bank’s CSR projects
targeted on child or youth education or literacy. In other words, this generation
would benefit from these projects in the future when they have grown up to
become responsible adults.
CSR Approach
There is enough evidence to support that UT is oriented to short-term giving
of cash and resources without any expectation of getting anything in return,
which is typical of businesses in the developing economy context due to
expectations in society.
The two main categories of CSR practices that were identified in UT were
philanthropic and sustainable CSR. The former category being those activities
that involved giving of cash and resources; and the latter being those activities
that were consistent, planned over a longer term, considered to be more
impactful in the community and in some cases served as business
opportunities for the bank for economic benefits. The philanthropic activities
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were deemed as altruistic and purely about giving back to society without any
expectation in return.
“My argument around CSR is that whether we want publicity or not it’s a
win-win situation and someone gets something from it. So our CSR
agenda has to impact the lives of the local people. The contribution we
make has to sort out a problem. We get those who come in to have a
chat and others send in letters.” (Corporate Communications Officer)
Although the bank stated a move away from donations, it is important to note
that from the examples that were given by the managers and evidence from
the archival sources, the majority of activities were about giving cash or raising
funds and giving resources for a cause or a project:
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year, we distribute about 2000 packs. We also visit the Bostal Institute –
the juvenile prison with Christmas packs. We have the Day of Caring –
th
when on every 14 of February (the day of love), when we choose one
NGO – there is an organisation called United Way Ghana, which
identifies a couple of institutions so we choose one and assist with a
donation or in kind. Last year for instance, we supported School for the
Blind. This year, we went to a place in the area of Nsawam called Coaltar
where we went to de-worm the school children.” (Media & Public
Relations Manager)
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UT suggests that although they get requests from the local community to
resolve issues, their choices are aligned with the bank’s corporate strategy,
geared towards business development and targeted to both the consumer and
the business customers.
“UT prides itself from evolving from an SME organisation, so the CEO
takes issues of SMEs very seriously. We support them because we
understand that sector very well and we know how to help businesses in
this category to grow. For example, the background to the Financial
Literacy Programme, which is our major CSR project, is drawn from this
concept.” (Corporate Communications Officer)
In addition to these two main CSR projects, UT focuses its CSR efforts in the
area of education and health in line with supporting the government to achieve
four of Ghana’s eight United Nations Development Programme Millennium
Development Goals – to improve maternal health, reduce child mortality,
alleviate poverty and combat malaria.
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for example, they are in partnership with GIZ to raise awareness and
contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer:
The bank also uses sports to educate and develop the youth, taking them off
the streets:
“We have sports development projects, for example the one at Tafu. The
CEO is the President of the Tafu Golf Club, and every year we sponsor
the Tafu Golf Tournament. The interesting thing about the Tafu Golf is
that the Caddies have had an Educational Endowment Fund created for
them by the bank. You must definitely be in school to be a Caddy, so
we’re encouraging education at the same time as they do their jobs. Most
of the Caddies now have also become very good golf players and are
being sponsored for their own youth tournaments.” (Media & Public
Relations Officer)
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Due to the high level of investment in these partnerships, training and
professional development is required and undertaken to sustain the project, in
order to achieve the support aimed at stakeholder development.
“Your health is your wealth, and we believe that as we train you to take
care of your business, we are also interested in taking care of your
health.” (Media & Public Relations Manager)
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Prioritisation of CSR responsibilities
The next stage was to use the four-part construct of Carroll’s CSR pyramid to
understand how CSR manifests itself in UT within the Ghanaian context.
Crane and Matten (2004) established in their studies of CSR in the European
context that “all levels of CSR play a role in Europe, but they have different
significance, and furthermore are interlinked in a somewhat different manner”
(p.46). This was to find out whether the order of the layers in a Ghanaian
context – taken as an indicator of relative emphasis assigned to the four
responsibilities – differs from Carroll’s classic pyramid.
UT was clear that the economic responsibility of the bank was the foremost
priority:
“I guess for us, economically - doing business and giving back to society
is key.” (Media & Public Relations Manager)
However, it is worth noting that the way in which the bank’s wealth is created
has been dependent on the stocks of social capital built through their CSR
practice. There is an implicit corporate social contract between the bank and
society whereby the bank has conferred upon itself the expectation to be a
good steward of the community’s resources because there is an expectation
from the community that the bank has the economic and human resources to
go beyond the participants in its transactions (Lantos 2002):
“UT has come this far because of the financial support we have given to
individuals and organisations, and the faith they have put in us,... so while
we are creating goodwill for ourselves through our practice, we are also
helping to build other peoples’ businesses because the major portion of
our CSR practice is the Financial Literacy Programme – we have our TV
programme called “Tit-bits on your finances” and a radio programme
called “Wu sika tisen”, meaning “How is your money?” (Media & Public
Relations Manager)
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The notion of the bank making efforts to make the community financially
literate so they can build their businesses and take care of their personal
finances is the right thing to do for the bank, irrespective of what the motive is
– this is the bank’s core business and the community is better off. The manager
also suggests that because their activities are within the legal requirements of
the country and indeed, go beyond it, then the bank is meeting its ethical and
legal responsibilities at the same time.
“We are not undertaking any practice that is against the law of the country
but rather we go beyond – caring about human dignity. If people are
unable to take care of themselves, we want to promote human dignity
which is both ethical and legal in my opinion... working ethically, most of
the time fits into the legal framework, anyway. I believe every ethical
activity has a legal basis, so if as a bank we’re practicing on ethical
grounds then we do not have any legal issues.” (Media & Public
Relations Manager)
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latter that will provide UT with continued profits in the future. In any case, the
secondary data indicated the fact that donations and contributions were high
on the bank’s CSR agenda:
Although UT is cautious about the use of philanthropy and believes firmly that
focusing on programmes that are linked to their core business is more
sustainable, they continue to acknowledge the importance of the former:
“It’s important that our CSR is in tandem with our core business practice
– this becomes easier as we have the skills to deliver and it helps our
business too. Hence, our financial literacy programme where sometimes
our staff serve as consultants to businesses to help them with their
finances”. (Corporate Communications Officer)
This leads to the suggestion that although philanthropy evolves from UT’s
ethical stance and is closely linked with economic benefits, sustainable CSR
is a priority for the future. Sustainable CSR is a term that was repeatedly used,
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but also synonymous with strategic CSR if their CSR practice is aligned with
the bank’s core business as indicated by their current major programme in
financial literacy.
“As much as we work within a community where there are cultural issues,
it plays a very important role. Even in developing and implementing the
project.” (Corporate Communications Officer)
“I guess culture does. You know the people you are dealing with, you
know their way of life, hence we want to develop projects that fit into their
cultural expectations.” (Media & Public Relations Manager)
Several empirical studies suggest that culture may have an important influence
on perceived CSR priorities (Burton et al, 2000; Edmonson et al, 1999;
Pinkston et al, 1994).
When the researcher enquired whether this was definitely a required activity,
the manager said:
“Most of the time yes, we do. That’s why we have so many press cuttings.
Although I haven’t given much publicity to the financial literacy
programme yet – we are waiting until the timing is right.” (Media and
Public Relations Manager)
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It was indicated that not only was promotion of CSR good for business, but the
CSR practice when done properly, spoke for itself to their stakeholders.
The justification for undertaking promotions along with CSR was to ensure that
the bank was delivering on their promise of service delivery quality and also
promoting purposefully to benefit the stakeholders and create a relationship
with customers.
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regions. It is also a member of Ghana Club 100, and won the “Most Socially
Responsible Bank” in 2010.
Departmental function
The function of CSR in Access Bank Ghana Ltd lies with the Corporate
Communications department, whose lead is Director of Corporate Affairs and
is assisted by the Brand Manager. The Director of Corporate Affairs is part of
the executive team who reports directly to the CEO. The Director of Corporate
Affairs is a journalist with extensive experience in media, specifically radio.
The Brand Manager has extensive experience in a similar role at another bank.
This department’s two main oversights are communications and brand
management, with subdivisions of CSR, events and sponsorship, PR, and
marketing and advertising. The remit of their operations is both external and
internal communications, although the department works closely with the
Human Resources department for internal communications:
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Programme) that’s quite flexible as we let the employees give off their
own time and experience to develop their own projects.”(Brand Manager)
Stakeholders
Access refers to their stakeholders as beneficiaries. Stakeholders come in
different categories of beneficiaries, and the researcher makes an assumption
as to what type Access refers to based on the nature of their relationships as
described by the bank.
“If you look at the football there, it’s an “Alive & Kicking” campaign by a
British NGO, recently registered in Ghana helping disability people get
jobs so they are trained to make handmade footballs. Typically, with an
organisation like that our interests will be to support their cause which is
giving skills and jobs to people with disabilities, and that will benefit the
community.” (Director, Corporate Affairs)
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Thus, organisations partnering with the bank to make a positive difference in
the community have the license to execute their community projects.
CSR approach
Access bank has a corporate-wide CSR agenda across the sub-Saharan
region which is adapted to the local environment of the country it is located in:
“It is consistent across the whole region, although our CSR policy is
adapted to the specific country’s needs... whilst we have a big corporate
responsibility agenda bank wide, we also look at the local communities
where our branches are located and identify needs that are within our
CSR agenda and then support the communities.” (Director, Corporate
Affairs)
The aim of the bank is to localise the corporate agenda to meet specific needs
of the communities as well as implement projects that will improve and support
the environment in which the bank operates.
Community Relations
In order to achieve a wealthy operating environment, the mainstay of CSR at
Access Bank is on investing and delivering long-term community projects
which the bank believes is what makes it a successful business:
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entrepreneurs.... upholding Access’ ethical standards”. (Finance
Intelligence, 30/08/2009)
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Employee welfare
The employee welfare implies various services, benefits facilities such as
working conditions, medical insurance, allowances offered to employees by
the employer which may be in both cash and/or kind.
“....they are committed to improve the quality of life for employees and
local communities.” (All Sport, 8/12/2009)
Employee volunteering
Employee volunteering programmes (EVP) are the main type of CSR practice
Access uses to reach its communities. This allows employees the flexibility
and autonomy of adapting and creating projects to specific and different local
needs within the themes that the bank focuses on, that is, from donations and
contributions to skills training:
Due to the increase in size of the bank based on the recent merger with
InterContinental Bank, EVPs are formed according to one or more branch
clusters in catchment areas depending on the size of these clusters in a
particular area. The rationale for these clusters is to ensure that the specific
local needs of the areas are met:
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“We have branch clusters for our EVPs, so for instance, we have a
branch in Osu-Oxford, another in Osu-Watson, etc. – they form one
cluster in the Osu area and they take care of EVP specific to the area’s
needs. In HQ, there are quite a few of us so are divided into three EVP
groups that deal with different issues... In Accra only, we have 14
different EVP groups now.” (Director, Corporate Affairs)
However, although the EVP group select a relevant project for their
community, the final decision of what project is actually implemented, still
comes from top management:
In most of the EVP projects the employees were required to contribute their
personal funds to support these local projects:
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Prioritisation of CSR responsibilities
When asked what they prioritise as their CSR responsibilities, management
expressed ethical and philanthropic were equally fundamental to the success
of the bank from a business development viewpoint and in terms of having a
competitive edge in the market. The bank’s ethical stance stems from its
involvement in community investment through its EVPs, which they believe
has positive implications on the public’s perception of the bank. Access felt
that given the events in the banking sector abroad which led to a recession in
the world economy, these two priorities were essential in being socially
responsible:
“...ethical and philanthropy will probably take the centre stage because
customers will buy our products if they know that we are a socially
responsible organisation. It provides a competitive edge for us aside from
the products we offer to our customers.” (Brand Manager)
The next priority was the legal responsibility. Access was particularly keen to
ensure that its business operations and risk management adhered to the legal
requirements of the country in order to avoid any crisis and sustain the
business and its brand:
“Youth. This may be linked with education because we can’t discuss the
youth without looking at education. And technology...if we don’t move
quickly, we will be far behind in terms of ICT so we need to partner more
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with organisations that are in the industry to improve our use of
technology.” (Brand Manager)
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environment where the community looks at us positively, when they have
to make a choice of where to put their money and deposits, we’re
predisposed because they know that we’re helpful in the community, or
that we’ve created an employment opportunity for someone’s child.”
(Director, Corporate Affairs)
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Services Ambassadors (FSAs). The FSAs are largely responsible for business
development and new accounts, and are paid a fixed salary plus commission
dependent on the amount of business delivered.
The mission of Fidelity Bank was to be one of the top five banks in Ghana by
December 2014, based on all key performing indicators and anchored on three
key pillars – “our people, services and processes and return to stakeholders”.
Over the last four years, Fidelity has been recognised for its achievements and
won awards as the best growing bank in Ghana. It was indicated that Fidelity
has a particularly young employee base with the average age group below 40
years, which apparently adds to the bank’s culture of agility and growth:
“Our employees are very young, with 90% of the people in Fidelity about
35 years. Those of us who are 40 years and above are a minority. We
have a very youthful group of employees. So we want to capitalise on
our youth to change things.” (Head of Marketing)
It is no surprise that within three years of the researchers’ initial contact with
Fidelity, it has grown from a bank with no CSR strategy to the only bank with
a Director of FI & CSR. The bank turned after-tax profits of in GHS 43.8 million
in 2013, up from GHS 27.7million in 2012, representing a year-on-year annual
increase of 185% (Annual Reports 2012 and 2013). The bank is currently
privately-held with 55 shareholders made up of businesses and individuals,
with 90% of share holdings in Ghana and held by individuals such as the CEO,
Deputy Managing Director, members of the board of directors and some of the
heads of departments. The business shareholders are primarily made up of
investment capital companies and African-Ghanaian companies such as the
Agricultural Development Bank and Social Security and National Insurance
Trust (SSNIT). Fidelity Bank is looking to go public in 2015 on the Ghana Stock
Exchange Market.
Departmental function
Since 2010, there has been some restructuring in the department responsible
for CSR. Initially, the Head of Marketing was the lead on CSR, assisted by the
Brand Manager, both within the Marketing department. In 2013, the
responsibility for CSR was shifted from the Marketing department to a new
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and separate department of Financial Inclusion and CSR (FI & CSR), headed
by a Director, whose direct report is to the Deputy Managing Director. This
new department is based at the Fidelity Headquarters, Accra. At the time of
the interview, the financial-inclusion side of the department was made up of
agency banking, micro-finance and mobile payment services with 100
employees of whom approximately 40 were permanent staff and the rest were
agents or contract staff. The heads of each of these functions report directly
to the Director of FI & CSR. The CSR team was yet to be built; however, there
was expected to be a very close working relationship between the operations
of CSR and Financial Inclusion. According to the Director of FI & CSR, the
reason for Fidelity making this transition is:
“...to focus the bank’s CSR efforts around financial services, which is our
core business.” (Director of FI & CSR)
Secondly, the bank did not think the best fit for CSR was with the Marketing
department because the bank saw CSR positioned more as a business
strategy than a communications tool:
“I don’t think CSR best fits with marketing because then people think it’s
about communications... I think where we place it in the company tells
you what the company thinks about CSR. When it sits under marketing
communications, then you do all the big cheques and photo shoots for
promotion. We have put it under business strategy, because we see it as
a key business strategy. So I think this separation, tells you where Fidelity
wants to see CSR going, and it’ll be interesting to see how this model
works.” (Director of FI & CSR)
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“It’s the story around our CSR that is important, so if we follow our theme
clearly, then a story should emerge. If it’s innovative enough, then the
story must sell.” (Director of FI & CSR)
Stakeholders
When identifying who their stakeholders were, the foremost stakeholder
mentioned was the employee. Fidelity deemed it important to ensure that each
recruit to the bank understood the brand and culture. The next stakeholder
mentioned was the customer who was not only important in the transactional
operations of the bank in terms of being at the receiving end of their service
delivery, but also an essential source of insight into their expectations of the
bank:
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“I’m directly responsible for all requests that come in. These requests,
which we call sponsorships, usually come in two formats – one is the
executive or protocol type which this gets approval before it gets to my
desk. The decision has been made so it’s just a process. There is room
to agree or disagree, but let’s be real – when senior management has
already made the decision there is not much I can do. Then there is the
second format which is on a larger scale, probably about 80%. They are
requests from universities or tertiary institutions, NGOs, churches, etc.
We go through these letters and identify the relevant ones we can assist
with. So my direct responsibility is to review them and if I think that a
couple of them are in line with our criteria, that is, health, education,
women and children, then I advance them to my boss who in turn
advances to the executives to approve for funding. We make the
payment and go through the usual rituals of branding and promotion.”
(Brand Manager)
“...we operate in Ghana where a lot of poverty is seen, especially the lack
of provision in the areas of proper health and education, which means
we will be looking to make a discernible impact in those areas.” (Head of
Marketing)
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transferred to my assistant who then sends off a standard email of regret
to the applicant.” (Brand Manager)
This was reflected in the admission that the bank’s CSR practise was ad hoc,
and that although they had previously brought in a consultant to help them in
strategizing their approach, this had not worked:
“It’s a shame nothing much came out of the consultancy we had and
since then we were virtually thrown back in into the ad hoc way of doing
things.” (Brand Manager)
However, they were still making efforts to move away from this approach and
were quite clear on this: “No more ad hoc stuff.” (Head of Marketing)
CSR approach
Fidelity’s justification for prioritising their social agenda on health and
education was based on the fact that they were areas people spent money
most on. The justification of Fidelity’s social agenda prioritising on health and
education was on the fact that those were the areas people spent money most
on:
“We recognise that we are in a very deprived country and that the
biggest issues are not always around finance. So even if we thought
about it in terms of finance, when people get their cash and have money,
where do they spend their money most? It’s on education, health and
housing. Those are the areas with the big need.” (Director of FI & CSR)
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“In all cases of our CSR activities, we haven’t taken ownership and have
left that to the organisations to take care of the equipment we have
donated. I guess maintenance comes with strategy. When you strategize
to do something, then it is not a one-off, but continuous. But so far, what
we have done has been ad hoc and mainly in terms of cash, and we walk
away.” (Deputy Managing Director)
“...we need to move away from where we go and donate to the New
Horizon Primary School and expect our name in the newspaper the
following morning... we don’t need to do that.” (Head of Marketing)
Also, the described actions brought into question whether the bank’s
philanthropic acts were altruistic and giving back to society or was there an
agenda of wanting to make publicity from the event. Indeed, one manager
described it as a mundane process of going through the “ritual” of photo shoots
and publishing in the newspaper the next day. This indicated a trend whereby
the expectation for each of these events was to create publicity.
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gave them the facility alone at a concessionary rate, and at the same
time gave them GHS20,000 to refurbish the building in which they put
the machine.” (Deputy Managing Director)
Although they suggest most of their giving is on ad hoc basis, there were
instances where their activity was consistent over a period of time and a
relationship had been created:
“We have provided financial aid to the University of Ghana for the past 3
years and have signed a contract up to 2015 to give them GHS72,000
per year so that there is impact.” (Brand Manager)
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“We’ve invested heavily in IT. We’ve just operated our state of the art
data centre, which was done in collaboration with IBM – trying to integrate
the various terminals which the customer uses, that is, internet, mobile,
etc. We are rolling out an initiative called Agency Banking which is
targeted at the lower end of the market – the mass group of people who
are the street hawkers, the market women – you know about 68% of the
Ghanaian population is unbanked – that’s where the money is. This
market is lucrative, so we’re going there with our agency banking which
is basically, our bank being available at street corners everywhere.
Maybe, in a pharmacy shop, where we’ll have a point of sale device,
smart chip cards that will function as a “branch” of Fidelity bank. You
know, so a street hawker who trades around that area where the
pharmacy doesn’t have to come to a bank, but with their card, they can
go and top up their money or pay money into their account. And it’s more
accessible to them because some of them are also intimidated by
walking into a branch like this, so we are setting up in areas where they
normally transact and do their commercial activities.” (Head of Marketing)
The investment in technology allows the bank to extend its services to the
hard-to-reach customer, hence the concept of “agency banking”, which takes
the bank to the customer using a point-of-sale (POS) machine. Fidelity’s quest
for alternative revenue streams through its agency banking and use of mobile
network operations, as well as extending its customer base through reaching
the unbanked are likely to prove profitable for the bank in the area of
transaction services and money market activities:
“We are pioneering agency banking in Ghana, which means that shops,
pharmacies, and any retailer can all become banking agents. We give
them a POS machine, and we give customers bank cards and they can
either withdraw or deposit their cash - which means if we are able to do
that and we extend our contact points for the customer then they don’t
always have to see their branch”. (Director of FI &CSR)
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This technological advancement in the bank is linked directly to developing
their CSR strategy on financial inclusion, which the manager in charge
describes repeatedly as a strategy that is “innovative and scalable”:
“The priority is that our CSR projects should be innovative and scalable.”
(Director of FI & CSR)
Fidelity’s objective in meeting its CSR goal is to use the opportunities provided
by technology to reach Ghana’s unbanked, which not only becomes
economically beneficial to the bank but also aids in increasing the purchasing
power of a lot of people. The point on scalability resonates with the socio-
economic benefits that the bank would like to achieve. The sector of the
Ghanaian population that is most excluded - both socially and financially - is
the lower income segment in urban and rural areas which have smaller
amounts of savings and require smaller levels of credit. The economic benefit
for Fidelity in this customer segment is the gains made in volume. In order to
engage internal stakeholders – employees – in providing innovative ways and
ideas of reaching the said customer segment, an ideation project which
involves a website where employees can present their ideas was created.
This ideation project is targeted at employees only, with the hope that they are
able to provide innovative ideas and suggestions on how the bank can improve
their CSR strategy for both the internal and external stakeholders.
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gives them a platform, so they can make the suggestions on what they
think we should do. And once that takes off, I see it as one of the main
tools to get ideas to prosecute CSR in the bank. (Head of Marketing)
“...at the moment, one of the key things we have in mind is financial
literacy, because there is a huge need for this in the country. Whatever
we do in the country, whether it’s on health or education is around
needing money, and education in money is really lacking. So that’s one
thing that we want to champion.” (Director of FI & CSR)
“How much are they spending around health? How can we reduce that
expenditure or ensure that the expenditure is giving them better returns.
So even if we worked around health, it would be in that context of how
the investment an individual puts in health will give them a better return
or reduce their cost in accessing health.” (Head of Marketing)
One of the ways in which Fidelity intends to undertake its community relations
projects is primarily through employee volunteerism. Although there has not
been any evidence of activity in this area, the bank sees employee
volunteerism as one of the ways in which they can reach out to the community
at the local level, with the benefits of this relationship in terms of development
for the community and stocks of social capital for the local branch. The bank
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intends to encourage employees to volunteer in areas related to financial
services to meet their goals:
To date, requests from local stakeholders in the rural branch locations have
been side-lined for the more visible, nationally-oriented projects; and although
there is an agreement that the grass-roots issues are important for the bank
to pay attention to, there are concerns with management on how this is tackled
in order to create an impact in the community, as well as fit-into the story-telling
approach of the bank:
“The branch level is problematic in the sense that there are small projects
taking place in all these areas with limited budget, and may have very
little impact, as a bank we run the risk of not having a coherent story...
Now the branches themselves can support through volunteering.”
(Director of FI & CSR)
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Due to the economic impact of these so-called small projects of the bank at
local levels, the bank sees employee volunteering as an option to save on
spending, as well as work within the confines of the financial literacy theme.
“When we take care of our target customers, we tend to bond with them
and we tend to obtain their loyalty. When we have them locked down,
they want to do business with us, and we make profit out of doing
business with them. So indirectly, we win customer loyalty, they stay with
us for extended periods, we support their businesses, their businesses
grow, and out of that we make more profit.” (Deputy Managing Director)
The other reason for the profitability of the bank being most important was the
fact that money was required to invest in the social agenda of the bank.
Considering that Fidelity had already invested heavily in technology in order
to reach the unbanked in Ghana, was an indication that healthy finances was
paramount for the extension of financial services to the financially excluded
market:
“In order of priority, making of money is high on our list. It is the means
through which we will be able to make an impact. We need to be
increasingly more profitable, because the vision that we have spelt out
for ourselves as a bank, especially on the issue of financial inclusion and
bringing in the unbanked and what it will mean, deploying of technology;
trying to device new and innovative ways of getting them to bank with us
– that costs money. When we make money we can help build a more
financially inclusive banking sector. So, making money is without doubt
the first priority within this bank.” (Head of Marketing)
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There was also integration between the economic and ethical responsibilities
from the viewpoint that the latter was the mode in which to achieve the former.
Fidelity believes that one of the ways the bank gains loyal customers was
through serving the community and giving back to the customers, ultimately
impacting on profitability:
“From what we’ve done and intend to do, our profitability is based on
purely ethical and moral lines. I think to a large extent that is the
motivation, otherwise, probably we’ll not be here as a bank.”(Brand
Manager)
“Yes, I will rather think ethical responsibility was more of a priority, in the
sense that if we are making so much money from a group of people, it’s
only fair and nice for us to give back to them to meet their needs. So for
instance, we get a fair bit of money from churches, saving and investing
with us. At the end of the year, we give back to them money to help
refurbish their buildings, promote their activities such as conventions.
Similarly, in the communities they have need to build for hospitals,
schools, their kids, and therefore we want to identify with such projects
so we can give back to them.” (Deputy Managing Director)
The legal responsibility of the bank on the other hand was described as a
given. This was an undisputed claim, which was argued from the point of view
that:
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“...our legal responsibility is a given.” (Brand Manager)
“With the legal side of things – whatever we do in this bank, we are not
in any way, shape or form looking to circumvent or ever try and make
money at the expense of obeying the law, which is why in the last 10
months there’s been intensive anti-money laundering (AML) course for
every employee in this bank. It was ordered by the Central Bank but
we’ve been one of the first banks to ensure that everybody is AML
compliant. Even though we want to make money, first we want to be law-
abiding as a bank because our business is about keeping people’s hard-
earned money. Assuming that we take the legal responsibility more
seriously than anything else, and then we think about how creatively
within the law, we can make the most money for this organisation. How
can we deploy our competences and structure product and services that
help us to maximise our return. Once we do that, we will be able to share
the wealth that we have. So, legal and economic responsibilities are on
the same level.” (Head of Marketing)
The issue of philanthropic responsibility of the bank, on the other hand, was
rather contentious as they felt that the bank had unduly been focused on this
type of CSR practice, which no longer fit the future strategy. Fidelity’s aim for
future practice is making significant impact on collective society, as the bank
believes it is the best approach to gain reputation as a socially responsible
organisation:
“...philanthropy is where I think we’ve given our money in a way that, with
hindsight we should have been a little more considered in our approach.
Philanthropy is great, but I think it has been a focus too long and a lot of
resources have gone there. We need to move away from philanthropy
and move towards real sustainable, social investment in creating an
impact. It’s been self-propagating because I think we’ve honoured so
many of those requests, word gets around that if you need funds, go to
Fidelity, and so we want to nip it in the bud... It has been heavily
prioritised but we need to move away from that. The test of our social
credentials as a bank is how we use the wealth that we make and use it
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demonstrably by helping people institutionally and not individually –
demonstrable key CSR issues.” (Head of Marketing)
One manager was not prepared to comment on the banks’ priority where
philanthropic responsibility is concerned while the bank is in transition to more
sustainable practice. Assumptions can, however, be made from the statement
and the prior discussions that philanthropy has been heavily prioritised in the
bank’s CSR practice.
There were mixed opinions around use of the press on CSR activities,
although there was an acknowledgement that there was a requirement for
CSR publicity:
To date, we’ve made donation and have needed publicity for it. But in as
much as we need people to know the good things we are doing, but these
things so far are not so ground breaking that we should devote attention
to publicising them.... But to date the scale of what we’ve done and
magnitude of publicity that has been sought, for me has been an
imbalance. It doesn’t merit it. We need to use marketing communications
to publicise our achievements, but can’t donate $5,000 to an organisation
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and want three to four days of press coverage. No! We should be using
the columns to publicise really grand things that are sustainable... If we
make a significant impact, the press will notice anyway. (Head of
Marketing)
“We’ve tended to achieve some kind of multiple mileages from our CSR
activities. When we do these things, we like them to be put in the media
for the broader masses to know what we’re doing in order let them know
we are not only here to make money but we care about the communities
in which we operate too. It helps with building the brand Fidelity, and to
that extent, I can say that Fidelity has become one of the leading brands
in the country because of the fact that we have been embarking on some
CSR and people have heard about it because it’s been in the press, and
have won the affection of some people who have then come to do
business with us.” (Deputy Managing Director)
5.5 Conclusion
This chapter established the nuances of each case, by interpreting the
different datasets. Various themes and distinctively peculiar issues for each
case were highlighted, explained and discussed. Similarities of their CSR
approaches also emerged from the discussions.
143
Chapter 6 analyses across the cases to make comparisons and determine the
similarities and differences between the cases. This supports firming up the
findings derived from explaining the data in this chapter.
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Table 5.1: Illustrative Evidence: UT Bank
Categories Illustrative Statements
Donations & “Philanthropy is one aspect of CSR we cannot do away with.”
“It’s so important ..., but those we give donations to on an annual basis look
Contributions
forward to it.”
“And we work on social upliftment – which involves donations to our
Orphanages.”
“CSR involvement included…donations and sponsorships that directly
benefit underprivileged sectors.”**
“UT donates GHS270m to charity.”**
Employee volunteering “We engage staff on the road show for our Financial Literacy Programme.”
“Day of caring and staff volunteering at an orphanage...” **
Community activities “We have a major CSR function that takes place every year between April
and May where the team travels around the country to serve our customers
in the communities – it’s called the Financial Interest Programme.”
“We have an entrepreneurial programme for business starters whom we
also give some business grant to do their business and monitor how well
they do.”
“UT sponsors WFO Hunger Walk.”**
“UT commissions a $50,000 unit classroom block for an NGO for the less-
privileged called Family Outreach Ghana.”**
Partnerships with “We also bought a Mobile Screening Unit which we use in the communities
organisations and local in collaboration with Cancer Society of Ghana with GIZ formally GTZ and its
communities based on a 3 year partnership we have with them.”
“Based on these partnerships, we are able to align our CSR to fall in line
with the Millennium Development Goals – 4 of them – maternal health, child
mortality, poverty alleviation and malaria.”
“UT and Enablis Ghana (NGO) launch a competition for entrepreneurs with
good business plans in industry sectors…and provides funding and training
for the winner to start-up.”**
Financial skills training “The key things we have in mind are financial education or financial literacy,
because there is a huge need for this in the country.”
“UT’s current strategy is to get 300,000 customers to bank with us by the
end of 2013. So every community activity and every plan is geared towards
that. In going into the market, we not just training them to keep their books
but also encourage them to save with us as well.”
“It’s also important our CSR is in tandem with our core business practice –
this becomes easier, we have the skills to deliver it and it helps our
business too. Hence, our Financial Literacy Programme.”
“...the major portion of our CSR practice is the FLP, where we even had a
TV programme to cover this – that came in “tit bits” – both on TV and radio.
We have another programme coming up in the Ashanti region in Kumasi
called “Wu sika tisen” (How is your money doing?).”
Influencing reputation “Most of the time yes, we do. That’s why we have so many press cuttings.
Although I haven’t given much publicity to the financial literacy programme
yet – we are waiting until the timing is right.”
** Archival data
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Table 5.2: Illustrative Evidence: Access Bank
Categories Illustrative Statements
Donations & “The bank was the first institution to donate money to the Global Fund – I
think we gave them $1million.”
Contributions
“So for example if we were supporting a school needing a computer lab, we
would provide funding to cover the cost of build or refurbishment, and
purchase of computers.”
“Access provides donation of GHS500 to fund event honouring a Ghanaian
artist who designed the National Coat of Arms – Mr Amon-Kotei.”**
Employee volunteering “We have branch clusters, so for instance, we have a branch in Osu,
Oxford, another in Osu, Watson, etc they form one cluster and they take
care of EVP specific to the area’s needs.”
“In Accra only, we have 14 different EVP groups now.”
“Access renovates two school blocks as part of Employee Volunteer
Programme (EVP) 2010.”**
“A staff volunteer group of 30 employees from Access Bank contribute
GHS5000 to support the project of paying bills for outpatient children at
Korle-Bu Hospital, Accra.”**
Community activities “We want to be the most respected bank in Ghana and Africa. This we
believe will be majorly driven by our commitment to community investment
and CSR”
“Community investment programmes look at 5 thematic areas of health,
education, environment, culture and sports.”
“Sometimes, even our business ideas are driven by our community
projects.”
“Access Bank states commitment to invest in operating environment.”**
“Access spends family day-out with deprived children from Teshie
orphanage, six months after entering the Ghanaian market…they are
committed to improve the quality of life for employees and local
communities.”**
Partnerships with “We invest in building skills so we support Students Unions in universities to
organisations and local support them in building relationships with businesses to provide them with
communities opportunities in internships and placements.”
“That football there is from an “Alive & Kicking” campaign in partnership with
a British NGO, recently registered in Ghana helping disability people get
jobs so they train them to make handmade footballs…”
“Introducing Access Bank to Ghana…bringing with it an International
Finance Corporation (IFC) fund for development of women
entrepreneurs…upholding Access’ ethical standards.”**
Financial skills training “2 years ago, we assembled 120 SMEs and delivered a workshop in
partnership with Friends of Africa – a one day training on how to develop
workplace policies with facilitators from across Africa and Asia.”
“A video featuring a workshop organised by Access Bank, inviting all banks
to participate in training on trading bonds, a new financial product in
Ghana.”**
Internal activities “....they are committed to improve the quality of life for employees and local
communities.”
“We do a lot of internal training as well which the HR department
organises.”
Influencing reputation “Our vision is to be the most respected bank in Ghana in terms of financial
performance but also in terms of positioning in the market. So our CSR
feeds into that because whatever we do positions us.”
** Archival data
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Table 5.3: Illustrative Evidence: Fidelity Bank
Categories Illustrative Statements
Donations & “In the past, we have provided a GHS50,000 water network support to the
Contributions military academy at the Teshie camp.”
“In the past 3 years we have provided financial aid to students of University
of Ghana, and we have signed a contract up to 2015 to give them
GHS72,000 per year.”
“What we also did was to provide financial support to the 37 Military
Hospital to purchase and install an MRI scanner... at the same time gave
them GHS20,000 to refurbish the building in which they installed the
machine.”
“The bank delivered on social projects such as part-funding and
rehabilitation of water facilities at the Military Academy…donated
GHS20,000 towards MRI equipment…donated GHS10,000 to Sports
Council for Black Satellites’ World Cup 2009 win.”**
“Fidelity donates to veterans GHS14000 on World Day of Veterans.”**
Employee volunteering “For example, if the issue requires community cleaning, the local branch is
better placed to take this up and make an impact, build intimacy, trust,
positive perception and a shared responsibility with the branch manager,
staff and community, no matter how small the giving is.”
“I’m hoping we can set up a strong employee volunteering programme,
where they will be allowed to do what they want to do.”
“The volunteering will fit in the financial literacy programme, because that is
key.”
Community activities “My general direction is to focus our efforts of community programmes
around financial services, which is our core business.”
“However, we recognise that we are in a very deprived country... people get
their cash and have money, where do they spend their money most – it’s in
education, in health and in housing. Those are the areas with the big need.
So in terms of the social agenda, that’s where I will focus things on.”
“Fidelity Bank also ends “Go For Gold” six-month campaign, encouraging a
savings culture. Winner got a gold bar valued at GHS73,000.”**
Partnerships with “We are pioneering agency banking in Ghana, which means that shops,
organisations and local pharmacies, retailers, etc can all become banking agents.”
communities “We are working with Care International to use our agency banking model to
reach savings groups, so we can partner with these guys.”
“Co-sponsor of 2008 Scripps Spelling Bee Competition for Junior High
Schools to develop reading habits and literature for kids.”**
Financial skills training “Out of a population 24 million, there are 22 million SIMs in a holistic and
embracing way; this is CCR because the majority of these people are
unbanked. And quite a lot of the unbanked live in conditions of deprivation,
a lot of which is increasingly being resolved at the macro level by the
government, so what’s left for us to do is to take financial inclusion,
knowledge transfer and skills enhancement and capacity building...”
Influencing reputation “Most of the time, depending on the magnitude of the project we publicise or
don’t. Usually, the community level ones we let go... projects that are for
longer term, there is publicity that goes with it.”
** Archival data
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6 Discussion: Across-Case Analysis
6.1 Introduction
This chapter presents discussions from the insight provided in the within-case
analysis of each bank (Kidder, 1992) to generate theory (Gersick, 1988; Harris
& Sutton, 1986). It builds on from Chapter 5 by exploring similarities and
differences across all three cases, and investigating its relationship with
literature.
The approach of purposeful sampling was used to identify cases which confirm
and validate emergent relationships, as well as disconfirm relationships (Miles
& Huberman, 1994; Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007) enfolding literature along
the process of comparison, which provided an opportunity to extend the theory
of CSR in the context of banking in Ghana. This analysis is supported by Yin
(2009) who proposed a theoretical framework is used to study one case in
depth and the successive cases are examined to see if there are matches
and/or patterns that are theoretically weaker or absent. Secondly, Yin (2009)
recommended that analyses of case studies include chains of evidence that
enhance the understanding of external observers on how conclusions were
derived from the case data. Therefore, Table 4.5 indicates the evidence from
the interviews and archival data for each of the first-order codes. The table
also displays only elements that were corroborated by at least two archival
sources and/or three interviews from at least two of the cases. Although there
were some variations in the cases which are indicated, the focus was on
commonalities among them to determine what was most necessary for
accomplishing the outcomes.
This research set out to use a multiple case study approach to meet the
following objectives:
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• To contribute to knowledge of CSR by uncovering new dimensions of
CSR by in-depth and contextual study.
The initial archival data collected was analysed inductively, adhering closely
to the guidelines specified for interpretive enquiry (Miles and Huberman,1994)
to obtain historical reference points for their CSR practices and constant
comparison techniques were used (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss & Corbin,
1990). These approaches provided the basis for rigorous analysis of data to
determine the content foci for the interview data collection. In addition, they
provided the basis for delineating first-order and second-order themes, and
aggregate dimensions as evidence is demonstrated in Table 4.5 through the
examination and comparison of key practices and events (Isabella, 1990).
Along with developing first-order categories with support from literature, links
emerged among these categories which enabled the collapse of the first-order
categories into clusters of theoretically distinct concepts or second-order
theoretical categories. These second-order themes were developed into
aggregate and overarching dimensions which contributed to the final
theoretical framework which linked the various phenomena that emerged from
the data.
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6.3 CSR in the Ghanaian context
Due to the range of definitions and terminologies of CSR in different contexts
(O’Riordan & Fairbass, 2008), CSR has sometimes been a controversial issue
between business managers and stakeholders. While certain fundamentals
remain the same, CSR issues vary in nature and importance across different
industries, economic regions and locations (Atugaba & Dowuona-Hammond,
2006) and, hence, it was necessary to establish its meaning in the Ghanaian
context. Although the data reflected some differences in the notions of the
meaning of CSR, there was an underlying theme that seemed to run through
all the explanations. This was the act of “giving back” to society. There was
the recognition that the organisation entity was set up to make profit, and this
was heavily dependent on their relationship with society being built on the
concept of ‘giving back’, thus, making it beneficial to both parties:
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ensure the company maximises the positive impacts of its operations on
society. The understanding of CSR by all three banks referred to a
commitment to giving which seemed anchored in the context of a required
action for the success of the business. This was not only evident in the
managers’ worldviews on CSR but also in the secondary data.
The link between social responsibilities and the marketing functions of the
banks draws semblance with the 1960s notion of CSR which established the
relationship between societal needs and marketing function. This notion has
been readdressed and developed more recently in 2000s (for example, Baron
2000). The lack of exclusive department for the CSR function partly explains
the nature of the interventions. It seems contradictory that as important as the
banks claim CSR is, the function is not separate with dedicated resources.
Only one out of the three banks had a CSR department, which was in the
process of setting up a team with a newly appointed Director of CSR &
Financial Inclusion. CSR operations were placed differently in the
organisational structure of each bank: UT within Media and Public Relations
department; Access within Corporate Affairs Department; and Fidelity within
Marketing Communications Department. Although it is worth noting an attempt
to reposition CSR within existing departments, perhaps, it was a move towards
a more focused and strategic approach to help understand their stakeholders
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and communities (Freeman & McVea, 2002). This meant that CSR was only
one of the various responsibilities of the manager. In all cases, the context
reflects the use of CSR for the purpose of communications and publicity. CSR
is used in this context which is for the purpose of communications and
publicity. The situation of CSR within the various departmental functions also
gives an indication of the relevance placed on this function to its stakeholders:
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“CSR in Access Bank goes beyond to community investment. In Ghana,
we typically make a donation and use it as a photo opportunity for the
press – that’s the easy way to go about it but for us CSR has gone
beyond that. We have moved into the realm of responsible business
practice – in terms of internal and external projects.” (Brand Manager,
Access Bank)
Access Bank stressed clearly their CSR practice was also focused on
responsible business practice, as well as developing business ideas that
support the community:
Indeed, the bank that had appointed a Director of CSR & FI was already
moving in this direction, using “financial inclusion” as the basis to do so. This
is aligned with the core of the CSR debate that organisations should transition
from a state of mere compliance to a mode of engagement in order to create
value (Leutkenhorst, 2004; Novak, 1996). This involves social responsibility
that is aligned with the long-term commercial interest of the bank. However,
there was only a little indication from the existing evidence that the move
towards CSR contributing to the core business operations was product and
service related. Access Bank showed evidence of improving their operating
environment through industry-related training. This was an industry-focused
event held in June, 2010 – a workshop organised by Access Bank for all banks
in Ghana to participate in the training of trading in bonds at secondary level.
In order for the bank to tap into this business opportunity and facilitate its
challenging operating process, Access found it necessary to get competitors
trained for the product to be successful in the marketplace. Fidelity on the other
hand was just at the beginning of this journey – the infant and developmental
stages of agency banking, which is a new addition to their core business.
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are all great, to try and have an aligned strategy with core business and
meet the needs of the country in the process... At the end of the day,
we’re trying to improve peoples’ lives through literacy in finance.”
(Director of CSR, Fidelity Bank)
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“UT’s current strategy is to get 300,000 customers to bank with us by the
end of 2013. So every activity and every plan is geared towards that. In
going into the market, we are not just training these traders to keep their
books but also encouraging them to save with us.” (Media & Public
Relations Manager, UT Bank)
According to the above context, the nature of giving has to be strategic to make
business sense. This is supported by Vaughn (1999), who believes this
ensures that the investment allocated by the business yields financial returns.
According to the PwC Ghana Banking Survey Report (2010), the growth of the
Ghanaian economy can only be sustainable if local businesses in the financial
sector align their business activities with the local market and global trends.
This alignment will fuel their ability to make a significant impact in converting
the informal sector of the economy and the unbanked sector of the population
which remain at approximately 71% (PwC Ghana Banking Survey Report,
2010) and enable banks to sustain their growth in the long term. To perform
requires banks to identify and focus on alternative revenue streams, transform
customer segmentation, risk management, robust management information
systems and human capital. The challenge however for these Ghanaian banks
is to identify interventions that allow them to reconcile the interests of the
banks with those of one or more of their stakeholder groups. There are
similarities and overlaps in the sectors that the banks have chosen to work in
based on the obvious need in society. These sectors – health, education,
women and children, sports, and the arts – have been identified as where the
society has the greatest needs, hence where CSR should be focused. In all
cases, health and education are priorities:
“We draw up the CSR strategy for the year to focus on specific themes,
e.g. on health, education, etc.” (Brand Manager, Access Bank)
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“So my direct responsibility is to review these requests on regular basis
and if I think that a couple of them are in line with our criteria i.e. health,
education, women and children... we’ve always tried to work within
certain themes. Whatever we’ve done fall under the themes of education,
health, women & children. There’ve been a few occasions when we’ve
gone out of these themes to do sports, and one or two other things that
are not directly under our main themes.” (Brand Manager, Fidelity Bank)
“Education and health – and it’s also important that our CSR is in tandem
with our core business practice because we have the skills to deliver and
it helps our business too.” (Corporate Communications Officer, UT Bank)
If the decision-making is not strictly driven by policy and process criteria, then
one is therefore led to question what is most important for stakeholders in this
developing society. What are the stakeholder values that allow these banks to
make choices on the area and type of CSR? What does the stakeholder care
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about that makes them grateful and recognise the value of the banks’ social
actions in these sectors? And, to what extent are CSR practices of the banks
influenced by the local context? In an attempt to answer these questions, what
is clear from the data is that it does not present any indication of a formal,
comprehensive dialogue between banks and stakeholders to establish needs
that have to be met through CSR. However, personal networks of top
managers, letters of requests from individuals and organisations in the
community, as well as partnerships with non-profit organisations all contribute
to identifying who their stakeholders are, what their needs may be and how
the banks can meet them.
A review of literature over the decades indicate that the term ‘stakeholder’
refers to all those who have an interest in an organisation without whose
support the organisation cannot survive and can substantially affect the
welfare of the firm. (Freeman, 1984; Clarkson, 1995; Midgley, 2000; Bevir &
O'Brien, 2001; Post et al, 2002; Nicholson & Kitchen, 2007). Mitchell et al
(1997, p.852) lists stakeholders as:
“...all individuals or groups who can substantially affect the welfare of the
firm, including not only financial claimants, but also employees,
customers, communities, governmental officials, and, under some
interpretations, the environment, terrorists, blackmailers, and thieves.”
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organisation’s life. Additionally, the lists of stakeholders include groups not
necessarily linked exclusively by an economic relationship with the firm.
Clarkson argues that secondary stakeholders on the other hand, are not
essential for the survival of the firm and do not directly influence it.
Nevertheless, there are potential overlaps between these two groups of
stakeholders which should not be taken for granted.
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businesses are progressively moving toward engagement strategies focused
upon processes of mutual responsibility, information-sharing, open and
respectful dialogue and an on-going commitment to problem-solving. This
statement is made in the context of developed countries and is not necessarily
fully realised in the developing economy context. Within the last decade, the
local government has struggled to maintain consistent growth and meet the
literacy and welfare needs of the Ghanaian communities which explain the
focus of societal expectations.
The motivations for CSR by the banks arguably come from the failures of the
Ghanaian government, hence, fundamental areas like education and health
priority obligation for all three banks. In Ghana, the national literacy rate of
adults (15years+) is 53.4%, which is well below the developed world’s average
of over 90% (Ghana Statistical Service/World Bank: Core Welfare Indicator
Survey, 2003). The Ghanaian government public spend on education as a
percentage of the country’s Gross National Product (GNP) increased by just
over 1% between 1999 and 2010, which is also below the overall sub-Saharan
average of a 5% increase (UNESCO: Youth and Skills Report, 2012, p.142).
The government expenditure on health as a percentage of Ghana’s total
government expenditure was 4.4% in 2006, a reduction from 10.8% in 2000
(WHO: World Health Statistics, 2009). According to an International Monetary
Fund (IMF) report, social concerns such as education, health, employment,
productivity, social protection and poverty reduction are indicative of major
socio-economic challenges to Ghana, therefore putting pressure on the private
organisations to find solutions to these problems in order to accelerate national
development efforts aimed at achieving growth and social equity (National
Development Planning Commission: Ghana Shared Growth & Development
Agenda, 2010-2013). There is no doubt that one of the main ways to achieve
this is via the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills through CSR.
These obligations for the banks are a marked contrast to what is considered
by businesses in the developed-country context.
Given the scale of needs and stakeholder expectations, it is not surprising that
these domestic banks are paying attention to education, health and the
economic welfare of the society through CSR activities, which explains the
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focus on similar sectors in the economy. CSR activities in the area of arts and
culture, which primarily refers to the sponsorship of music festivals, beauty
pageants and the like, are also implemented as CSR but there is indication
from the banks that these sponsorships although providing brand exposure
are deemed by the bank as not being very useful in meeting real community
needs. Indeed, it is worth questioning whether these so-called sponsorships
fall under the concept of CSR.
The overall perception of CSR from the three cases regards the notion of
philanthropy as a core CSR practice, which is in contrast with the Western/
European debate pioneered by researchers such as Kotler and Lee (2005)
and Carroll and Shabana (2010), who refer to the essence of CSR as
philanthropic obligations through discretionary business practices and
contributions. The banks recognise a social obligation which extends beyond
creating value or profit and is in alignment with some of the definitions of CSR.
This obligation is in direct relation to accountability to non-investor
stakeholders or those other than shareholders such as the community (Fitch
& Surma, 2006). These banks are expected to actively assist their local
communities within the sectors that have been identified. This expectation is
supported by the research by the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD, 2000) in which when asked how CSR should be
defined, Ghanaians stressed local community issues such as “building local
capacity” and ”filling in where government falls short”. Solutions to issues
where the government has fallen short have primarily been through
philanthropic activities, guided by traditional obligations of the banks in the
absence of the government. Incidentally, one of the issues that were discussed
by the banks in terms of the future focus of CSR activities was on building
capacity among young people.
The view of CSR across the banks is similar. In an attempt to understand CSR
in the Ghanaian context, the fundamental priority and position of the banks is
to be profitable and provide adequate attractive returns to shareholders.
However, one of the main contributors to the success of the banks is their CSR
practice which creates not only a good perception of the banks but also
positively impacts on their business development and subsequently their
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profits. Additionally, the high expectations from society placed on the banks to
support and solve their issues have given these banks little option but to
comply. These expectations from society and obligations on banks stem from
the national culture which also has an influence on organisational culture.
Therefore, it is fair to conclude that CSR is a localised and socially-embedded
concept heavily driven by the cultural perspective of the community to
influence the ideas, issues addressed and mode of CSR interventions the
banks use to respond to their social and economic environment.
The initial analysis of the secondary data identified patterns from which these
categories were derived. This was done by assigning phrases to similar
descriptions or similar meanings to key words. These phrases were used
instead of specific words allowing the researcher to capture activities related
to the phenomenon that represented the same objective, e.g. “giving money”,
“donating cash” and “raising funds”. The various acts of giving derived from
the data relates to the definition of philanthropy which according to Encarta, is
a desire to improve the material, social and welfare of humanity, especially
through charitable activities.
The data structure which illustrates how this theme was developed is in
Appendix F Table a). A key emerging theme that came from the first-code
analysis was on “giving money”. This referred to all statements or phrases that
represented giving cash or cheques or raising funds in order to make provision
for an individual, group of individuals or an organisation. This is the type of
giving Carroll (1979) describes as a desirable and discretionary responsibility
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of a firm, which is debatable in the Ghanaian context. According to Lantos
(2002), this type of giving without wanting anything in return, which could be
termed as altruistic, is not necessarily beneficial to the bank’s financial
position, and for publicly-held organisations, such activity is deemed as
immoral (Friedman, 1970). The issue of legitimacy is however, debatable in
this context considering the expectations and demands of stakeholders for the
bank to provide certain CSR initiatives. In this context, the philanthropic
responsibilities are those actions that society expects from a business to be a
good corporate citizen (Helg, 2007). It involves giving back to the community
and being a good corporate citizen through donations, active participation with
charities and community welfare programmes (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2006). The
wide range of acts of giving was represented in statements made by UT Bank,
the following statements or phrases represented this meaning:
Access Bank similarly funded an event, but also gave much employee time to
community programmes:
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GHS50,000)... donated GHS20,000 towards MRI equipment to 37
Military Hospital.” (Annual Report, 2009)
When questioned about the motivation that drove these donations and
contributions, Fidelity Bank said that the public relations benefit derived from
the contributions were worth the effort and financial sacrifice to create value in
the community:
“We make the payment and go through the usual rituals of branding.
…Branding is identity building, creating a differentiating, consistency and
ownership, so once we become a reference point for a project, that’ll
definitely impact on the brand.” (Brand Manager, Fidelity)
“We’ve tended to achieve some kind of multiple mileage from our CSR
activities… When we do these things, we like them to be put in the media
for the broader masses to know what we’re doing... it helps with building
the brand Fidelity.” (Deputy Managing Director, Fidelity)
The angle of motivation for the bank on benefiting from publicity through giving
challenges the moral and ethical obligations of individuals to serve others and
place other’s interests above their own (Comte, 1852), thus individual rights
were not consistent with the above obligation (Chesters & Lawrence, 2008).
However, not all top managers in this bank were in agreement on this
approach to CSR, from the viewpoint that giving should be strategic, focused
on enhancing competitive context:
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Ghanaian public is interested in. So I don’t want to discount it.” (Director
of CSR & FI, Fidelity)
The next emerging activity under the dominant theme of philanthropy was that
of “giving resources” which represents all types of giving other than cash, and
included giving of equipment to schools and hospitals, and food and drinks to
orphanages. In UT, the following statements or phrases represented this
meaning:
“We would like to express our gratitude for the donation of two PCs for
ICT training...” (Letter of Thanks from Teshie Orphanage, Accra,
5/01/2011)
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“Access undertakes two volunteer projects – one involving providing
Christmas gifts to children and the aged with food and drinks...”
(JoyOnline.com, accessed 5/01/2011)
This type of responsibility has its roots in the belief that business and society
are embedded in an organic way (Frederick, 1994) which differs from Carroll’s
conceptualisation of a Western or developed context about less focus on how
companies give money away to how companies make money. This is the
reason why these banks are dependent on society for the success of their
businesses. The component of CSR described here partly resonates with
Matten and Moon’s (2004) concept of CSR being ‘implicit’ and less formalised,
concerning those values, norms and rules which result in requirements for
corporations to address areas that stakeholders consider important. Although
this ‘implicit’ concept also refers to organisations’ self-interest driven CSR
policies and strategies, it is not necessarily so for these banks that intervene
in societal issues not always on voluntary basis, but as a matter of necessity.
Given the examples of the nature and variation of contributions made by the
banks, it is evident that the limits of the banks’ responsibility are vague.
Additionally, the implications of their actions cannot necessarily be aligned with
the economic and profit-making orientation of the banks: they seem to rely on
these practices for good business. The range and use of philanthropy in this
context represents a chaotic and messy challenge in defining what this
practice means to the banks. Whether or not the philanthropic actions of these
banks are deemed as strategic philanthropy is debatable. According to Porter
and Kramer (2002), the term ‘strategic philanthropy’ is used loosely to cover
types of giving and charitable activity that has a theme, goal, approach or
focus, and has some connection (however vague) between the charitable
contribution and the business. Most of the banks’ donations had nothing to do
with the companies’ strategies; however they were aimed at generating
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goodwill and positive perception. In accordance with Lantos (2001),
philanthropy is being used strategically by the banks for the purpose of building
a good image and reputation:
“One major advantage that comes with CSR is public perception. And
when you are perceived by the public as contributing to social good it
gives the brand a favourable perception. And in the banking sector where
technically there isn’t much difference in the services – they are virtually
the same, called vanilla products - we are offering with other banks, every
ounce of perception counts because that’s what will influence decision
makers.” (Brand Manager, Fidelity Bank)
There is also a notion of altruism behind the motive of giving which identifies
with some definitions of the term philanthropy. Additionally, these banks clearly
perceive philanthropy as a CSR practice and as empirical evidence proves,
their main CSR practice. However, there is awareness amongst the managers
that “true” philanthropy cannot be wholly accommodated in a business
environment. It is noteworthy that this term is also arguably not considered as
a part of CSR depending on which economic context it is being used.
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funds.” Friedman therefore concludes that if charitable contributions are to be
made, they should be made by individual stakeholders and not by
corporations. This line of argument is supported by later scholars (Bremmer,
1987; Clement-Jones, 2005; Murray, 2005). These arguments are based on
the assumption that the social and economic objectives are separate and
distinct so that a corporation’s social spending comes at the expense of its
economic results (Porter & Kramer, 2002). This point should be especially
relevant in this context where the banks’ contributions are not always focused
and sometimes ad hoc. However, there is arguably not a black or white stance
in these circumstances considering the fact that there is an element of strategy
where philanthropic interventions are used for publicity to build the image of
the brand (as done by all three banks), and in other cases where charitable
efforts are used to improve the competitive environment (as done by Access
and UT Bank). In other words, philanthropic efforts work towards a
combination of social and economic goals which support each other, wherein
lies the obligation to financially support the community. UT is very clear on
their stance on this issue:
“UT has come this far because of the financial support we have given to
individuals and organisations, and the faith they have put in us is what
has brought us this far. So it is only fair to give back to society.” (Media
and PR Manager, UT Bank)
“My argument around CSR …our agenda has to impact the lives of the
local people. The contribution we make has to sort out a problem.”
(Corporate Communications Officer, UT Bank)
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Pure Philanthropy Pure Business
Fidelity Access UT
The motivations for corporate philanthropy vary (Siefert et al, 2003, pp.195-
196). In the context of this study, the achievements of social and economic
goals are the foci for the banks, with an awareness that they are unable to
function in isolation of the society around them. Similarly, the main reasons
that are reflected in literature point towards a way for companies to respond to
the social needs of the local communities in which they operate (Berman et al,
1999; Wood & Jones, 1995), and as a way of stimulating goodwill towards
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companies within those communities. Some literature argues that corporate
philanthropy influences the perceptions of the firms in the eyes of the
community and stakeholders, including investors, customers, suppliers, actual
and potential employees and the voluntary sector (Himmelstein, 1997; Saiia
et al, 2003; Smith, 1994). The above motivations identify with those of the
banks in Ghana. Philanthropic donations therefore have the potential to serve
the needs of communities, enhance the organisations’ reputations, as well as
enhance the long-run financial performance of the firms.
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Access and UT, however, showed some evidence of engaging with the local
community through employees providing socially beneficial activities on paid
company time. In both cases, their EV initiatives are a combination of
volunteering efforts to meet business goals as well as simply to meet and
support local needs. The employees are encouraged and supported by the
banks to volunteer on initiatives that are connected to the core business such
as providing financial literacy to adults. For example, if members of the
community are taught to understand the benefits of saving and how they can
save, then this potentially contributes to the building of new markets and
potential customers. By the same token, they deal with general community
needs. According to the data, the most common examples of community
projects engaged in by employees include refurbishing of school buildings and
hospital wards, distribution of food and drink on the streets and to orphanages,
charity walks to raise funds for a cause such as cancer, providing and installing
computers to schools, teaching computer skills to children and mentoring
them, health-related projects like working with professional partners to health-
screen the public, and environmental volunteering such as cleaning the streets
of the local community.
For example, UT managers and employees engage with the local community
to provide food and drink to the poor on Christmas day:
“The Chairman with the support of employee volunteers hit the streets
on Christmas day to distribute food and drinks.” (Media & PR Manager,
UT)
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gain values of social capital with the community such as trust and loyalty, and
enhance the corporate image:
“For example, if the issue requires community cleaning, the local branch
is better placed to take this up and make an impact, build intimacy, trust,
positive perception and a shared responsibility with the branch manager,
staff and community, no matter how small the giving is.” (Brand Manager,
Fidelity)
The increase in the value of moral and social capital through such
interventions is confirmed by various literature (Porter & Kramer, 2002; Saia
et al, 2003; Godfrey, 2005; Bramner & Millington, 2005), where the recipients
of the volunteer efforts recognise the commitment that a company has when
volunteers show up personally to help (Kotler & Lee, 2005). Employee
volunteering at Access Bank is more established with employee volunteering
programmes (EVPs) implemented by clusters across all branches. The scale
of these programmes represents a significant financial investment and
commitment by the bank to encourage, recognise and reward employees for
their efforts. EVP clusters are given the opportunity to decide what initiatives
to undertake based on prioritising a very local need:
On a positive note, the fact that employees are organised in local clusters can
help in ensuring that community issues taken up as projects can be controlled
and monitored to have an impact. Apart from contributing to community needs
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and meeting business goals, EV research literature linked to human resource
development strategy (Logan, 2002; Tuffrey, 1995, 2003) indicates there are
benefits to the employees. There is an indication that the morale of employees
is boosted as a result of volunteering due to the acquisition of new and use of
transferable skills, sharing knowledge, insights into community issues and the
inner satisfaction gained from supporting others. It is noteworthy that there is
little evidence from data on how the impacts of EVP on the employees and
community are measured, although they purport to improve their quality of life.
“Access spends family day out with deprived children from Teshie
Orphanage, six months after entering the Ghanaian market… they are
committed to improve the quality of life for employees and local
communities.” (All Sports, 8/12/2009)
What is evident is the use of EV activities for publicity for the bank, which is
supported by literature linking EV to corporate reputation building strategies
(Quirk, 1998; Thomas & Christoffer, 1999, Tuffrey, 1998). According to Muthri
et al (2009), reasons which employees and corporations give for becoming
involved in EV include “doing good”, “cooperating with others”, “trusting”, or
“networking”. These reasons culminate in intangible assets that count in the
lives of people in the community. To an extent, a reason such as trust
resonates with the banks, especially that of Access which is keen to be
accepted and respected in the Ghanaian market. The role of EV in generating
social capital like trust is supported by Putnam (1995) who also argues that
social capital is accumulated in actual human relationships and interactions
between employees and people in the community, establishing social norms
and facilitating cooperation and collective action (Putnam, 1993, 1995). Thus,
the localisation of EVP by Access using clusters establishes the relationship
of each cluster with the community area they are responsible for.
There is on-going debate (Campbell et al, 1999; Sanchez, 2000; Neron, 2008;
Bronn & Vidaver-Cohen, 2009) on the motives of organisations that capitalise
on their corporate behaviour as corporate citizenships for market advantage,
as customers become sceptical. In this context, Access is not apologetic about
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using their community engagement for publicity as it is part of the plan to be
accepted in the Ghanaian market.
Community Relations
Community relations is another term closely linked with philanthropy (Kotler &
Lee, 2005) in terms of being a direct contribution from the banks. It is the on-
going involvement of the banks to engage with the communities in which they
operate. As sometimes referred to as Corporate Community relations, it is the
function through which businesses intentionally interact with the local
community which is made up of individual or group citizens, organisations and
other stakeholders (Altman 1998). According to Altman (1998), this is done
through community-based and outreach programmes and community
partnerships which include all the activities that promote the interests of the
organisations and the communities where it is located. The community
partnerships involve varying relationships with civic, professional and non-
profit organisations. This function may or may not be linked with philanthropy
within the business.
The data structure which illustrates how this theme was developed is in
Appendix F Table b). These activities were identified from the data in instances
where the in vivo codes “community investment” and “community relations”
were found. Community relations captures all active and practical
engagements the banks have with their communities in a bid to create a
reliable image. It is worth mentioning at this stage that some of the themes
already identified, such as employee volunteering, impact on community
relations of the banks. Examples of some activities in the data that are
classified under community relations include training events, health screening
projects and the like. The theme of community relations came up often but not
always in the context of what is currently being practised but rather the
direction the banks were aiming to move towards and achieve. Phrases that
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had the above codes were often followed with specific types of activities. So
for example, in the case of Access:
Other terms that were coded as having similar meanings were “investment in
the community”, “social investment” and “community development” as
exemplified.
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the stakeholder to the bank. This leads to the assumption that the stakeholders
the bank refers to are moral beneficiaries. It also raises the question that
perhaps either the bank has not yet identified who its strategic stakeholders
are, or indeed there is a bias in the assumption that the influence and impact
of decision-making for the CSR agenda is one-sided. Little of the stakeholder
literature has suggested or tested ways in which firms can identify
stakeholders’ interests or what strategies can be used to address
stakeholders’ interests, should they be identified (Polonsky et al, 2002, p.110).
Although, a decade has passed since this claim was made, it may be still true
for developing economies and the complexity of the social environment in
Ghana may mean that the bank faces the problem of recognising the role of
the stakeholder in affecting its CSR agenda.
The concept of “community” does not have one precise definition but a variety
of interpretations, whose only common element was the fact that they referred
to people (Hillery, 1955). According to the data, the boundaries of community
are limited to people or groups of people in an organisation within a local area
and with whom the banks carry out some activities and share interests with. In
recent years, the classification of “community” has considered specific
features (Freeman et al, 2006; Harting et al, 2006; Podnar & Jančič, 2006;
Putnam, 2000) – the place of community affiliation; the country where a
community develops; the group of people with whom one carries out some
activity and shares interests with; the virtual community one takes part in, and
so on. The geographical scope is influenced by location of local branches of
each bank, by region, e.g. Greater Accra, and generally within the country
borders. Interaction with the community is determined by the regularity and
nature of the social relationship. In other words, the focus is on community of
place, which is bound by geographic proximity, common interest, elements of
interaction and practice. These communities of place desire to share the
benefits that the business has by operating in the location, which implies within
the developing economy context that community of place involvement is not a
choice but a necessity in facing demands to contribute to areas such as
education and health, in order to work effectively and be accepted in the
domestic marketplace. The increasing pressures and expectations from
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organisations are also partly a result of relevant social institutions who
traditionally tackle social issues within communities. The common interests of
communities are apparent in terms of the purpose and area of focus for both
the organisations and the community stakeholders, which in the case of the
study are in education, health and social welfare. The research data indicates
that the community stakeholders are not necessarily proactive nor have an
agenda-driven identity to engage in a dialogue with the banks. There is little
evidence of formal dialogue between the banks and the communities that seek
to contribute to the benefits of the community. Nevertheless, there are
uninvited requests from individuals and institutions; and partnerships with non-
profit organisations to support their causes. These community programs,
which are identified and/or adapted to local needs, may either be on ad hoc
basis as in the case of Fidelity or from a strategic approach; conducted in
partnership with other organisations as in the case of UT; or solely by the
banks. However, all three cases worked on similar sectoral themes.
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“We believe in delivering sustainable community investment, and a
sustainable environment as it is based on this that our business is able
to thrive… Sometimes, even our business ideas are driven by our
community.” (Corporate Affairs Director, Access Bank)
“There is major CSR function that takes place every year between April
– May where the team travels around the country to serve our customers
in the communities – it’s called the Financial Interest Programme.”
(Corporate Communications Officer, UT Bank)
This service is to train potential customers to keep their books and save their
money. Thus, it is geared towards turning programme participants to
customers to achieve the bank’s business development goals. In addition to
supporting these hard-to-reach communities, this programme potentially
provides the bank with new market opportunities and contributes to the
success of the bank:
“UT and Enablis Ghana (an NGO) launch a competition for entrepreneurs
with good business plans in ten industry sectors.” (Daily Graphic,
20/10/2010)
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Access also shows evidence in engaging in similar activities:
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Industrialisation Centre International (OICI) to complete their vocation
studies.” (Annual Report 2008, Fidelity Bank)
“...we are pioneering agency banking in Ghana, which means that shops,
pharmacies, etc can all become banking agents. We are working with
Care International to use our model to reach savings groups, so we can
partner with these guys. To me that fits quite clearly. It’s a business
concept or idea that we hope will bring us profit but the people that we
are helping our poor so it can easily translate into part of our planned and
aligned project.” (Director of CSR, Fidelity Bank)
All the banks are making an effort to position themselves in the community
through active, supportive and practical relations with the community which
they hope converts to an increase of reputation and competitive business.
“…for the donation of two PCs for spending time to train the children in
ICT…” (Letter of Thanks, Teshie Orphanage, 5/01/2011)
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involvement is perceived as a social responsibility that should be aligned with
the bank’s long term commercial interest. Some of these investments have not
necessarily been so:
“We are pioneering agency banking in Ghana, which means that shops,
pharmacies, and retailers can all become banking agents... we give them
a POS machine, and we give customers bank cards so they can either
withdraw or deposit their cash. It means if we are able to extend our
contact points for the customer – then they don’t always have to find their
branch. Actually, these are the areas where we’re starting to develop
community projects with the majority in the rural areas; some will be in
the urban areas, of course.” (Director of CSR, Fidelity Bank)
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Fidelity is keen to adopt technology in its quest for financial inclusion and
business development. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) 2010,
transformation of technology and information systems is the backbone for
improving service delivery and sustaining product development. According to
their report, strengthening IT infrastructure such as centralised processing,
disaster recovery plans and Information Security should be a priority for
Ghanaian banks. Financial Inclusion is defined by Center for Financial
Inclusion at Accion (CFI), an action-oriented think tank working toward full
global financial inclusion as:
Full financial inclusion is a state in which everyone who can use them
have access to a suite of quality financial services provided at affordable
prices, in a convenient manner, and with dignity for the clients. Financial
services are delivered by a range of providers, most of them private, and
reach everyone who can use them, including disabled, poor, and rural
population (Financial Inclusion 2020: Opportunities and Obstacles to
Financial Inclusion Survey Report, 2011, p1)
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realm of mandatory practice. This is in support of Lantos (2001) who proposes
that companies should limit their philanthropy to strategic CSR, which means
being involved in good works that are good for the business too. Community
needs and interests that translate to investments by the bank no longer
become a voluntary choice because if effectively aligned with business goals
will accrue both economic and social benefits. This resonates with Drucker’s
(1984) view that the interests of the community should be the interest of an
organisation. Similarly, Porter (2002) expands on this notion by calling for
distinguishing CSR as either a strategic choice or altruistic. In other words,
presenting a trade-off between increased sustainable profits or reduced
profits.
“We strive to keep up pace with the world yet, we make sure we have
our minds at our heritage and our values. That is the big agenda for
Fidelity for 2013, and that is where the CSR agenda too is derived.”
(Brand Manager, Fidelity)
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“…it is also culturally right – in our saying we say that – “our parents help
us to grow our teeth, and we help them when they have lost their teeth”
– so it’s the same context here where the society has helped us to be
who we are so it’s important to help them. That’s the same with CSR...
With our blood donation project, there is an Akan proverb that says that
“Sika ye mogya” – which means money is blood – it implies that if people
are saving their money with us, then we as a bank should be able to draw
out something that saves somebody’s life. Thus, blood donation and
banking are synonymous to making investments – life and future.” (Media
& PR Manager, UT)
“For example, if the issue requires community cleaning, the local branch
is better placed to take this up and make an impact, build intimacy, trust,
positive perception and a shared responsibility with the branch manager,
staff and community, no matter how small the giving is.” (Brand Manager,
Fidelity)
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how social capital can favour community and can be based on such unifying
themes as culture, religion, or spatial proximity which is what these banks and
the Ghanaian society have in common. This is when “stocks of social capital”
such as trust, norms and loyalty are realised. On the contrary to what some
authors say about ethical activities (Chewning et al, 1990; Goodpaster, 1996;
Miller & Ahrens, 1993) being undertaken because they are right and not
profitable, Fidelity’s actions are for the purpose of profitability in the long-run,
hopefully leading to good business because trust is built, reputation is
enhanced through positive perception which then attracts customers and
ensures the public’s goodwill.
Employee Welfare
The differences in the practice of CSR in the banks became significantly
apparent when the issue of employee welfare was compared. In developed
economies such as Europe, the role and rights of employees have been long-
standing items on CSR agendas within organisations. Indeed, they are
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foremost deemed as legal obligation and so must be adhered to. According to
the International Labour Organization (ILO Resolution Report 1947),
employee welfare is the provision to the employee by the employer which is
over and above the former’s wages and is conducive to high morale. In other
words, employee welfare is established when the employee is able to gain
comfort and improvements in the workplace. Welfare typically covers
employees’ rights; fair wages, working hours and good working conditions,
insurance against health, redundancy, and protection against unfair dismissal.
Reference to the welfare of employees in the data was rather scanty with only
one phrase explicitly identified as “quality of life of employees”. Other
references were only implied but not necessarily in terms of being part of the
banks’ social responsibility. The data structure which illustrates how this theme
was developed is in Appendix F Table c).
According to the data for UT Bank, there was minimal activity targeted to
employees. One contribution that was identified was about the recognition of
the employees when the bank won national awards. So, for example, when
the bank won Best Award for Customer Services, employees were in turn
rewarded in order to boost morale and feel appreciated. Similarly, Fidelity,
worked jointly with the Human Resources (HR) department to acknowledge
employees for their extraordinary work. According to Mirns (2012), Golin Harris
six-year survey showed that the perception of whether or not a company treats
and values employees fairly and well is a priority factor in rating their
responsibility and citizenship more so than its philanthropy, community
involvement, environmental performance and other factors. However, the
Ghanaian banks did not prioritise employee welfare as part of CSR. Employee
welfare was deemed a legal requirement which was operated largely by the
Human Resources (HR) department. Fidelity indicated that employee welfare
issues were within the remit of the HR department. Although in Figure 3.2 the
employee is identified as the most important stakeholder – this is not duly
reflected in the banks relationship and activities with this group of
stakeholders. However, the senior manager indicated that the bank was taking
steps as part of their CSR strategy transition to engage employees in providing
insight into improving and developing solutions for their welfare issues. This
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project was being co-ordinated and implemented jointly by the CSR and with
the HR department and specifically led by the Talent and Learning Manager.
Thus, the departmental partnership was still prioritised as an HR agenda,
judging from the project’s leadership.
Access Bank on the other hand was the only case that made mention of their
commitment to improve workplace policies and the quality of life of employees.
The bank also recognised their employees for their contribution to work when
they won a national award:
“The bank’s responsibility is for its employees for starters, and so for
instance, beyond the medical allowance that’s provided along with the
salary, the bank has a welfare package for staff, e.g. specific treatment
of injuries or diseases which may cost more than the employees’ annual
salary is paid for by the bank. We also have HIV workplace policies. And
we also have a peer counselling group/educators where we have
workshops to co-ordinate some training programmes internally to support
the management and outlook of HIV, TB, etc. as these conditions affect
productivity in the workplace as well as support the families.” (Brand
Manager, Access)
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with a focus on the interaction of CSR protocols and programs with external
stakeholders. Research suggests that CSR practices which include activities
for the welfare of their employees and their families contributes to increased
employee commitment to the organisation; as well as builds a better reputation
of the organisation in the society to attract new talent (Scott, 2004). CSR
interventions focused within the organisation also regulates employee
perception and conduct (Alversson & Karreman, 2003, 2004), and so is
integral to management operations, positively influencing the internal
dynamics of the organisation as well as the external (Costas, 2013). The
impact of CSR on employees shapes behaviour, identity and meaning which
is tantamount to how it is received, understood, practiced and resisted in
organisations. Fidelity’s plan to engage with employees to provide innovative
ideas on how to become a socially responsible bank is a step in the right
direction.
Therefore, there is an untapped opportunity certainly for all three banks, to link
their CSR agendas to recruitment, employee welfare and workplace policies.
In terms of recruitment, arguably, the banks can gain from their donations and
contributions to education institutions such as universities if their giving is
channelled appropriately to benefit graduates who will potentially become
employees. A structured process is required to ensure that the bank benefits
in the long-term.
Corporate Reputation
This section was coded by using all the statements that included phrases
representing CSRs influence on the perception of the bank. Hence, phrases
such as “buy- in”, “awareness creation”, “promote”, “positioning”, “favourable
perception” and “branding”. The data structure which illustrates how this theme
was developed is in Appendix F Table d).
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describes the firm’s overall appeal to all its key constituents when compared
to other leading rivals” (p.1078). According to Brammer and Pavelin (2006),
the reputational effects of CSR on an organisation is found to vary both across
sectors and within sectors, across the various types of CSR practices. Thus,
the effect on an organisation’s reputation is dependent on achieving the best
fit between the type of practices and the firm’s stakeholder environment. In
other words, there is opportunity in determining the contribution of philanthropy
to the success of their businesses. According to Bronn and Vrioni (2001),
reputation which is closely related to brand awareness helps companies to
differentiate themselves. Reputation also helps a firm to gain competitive
advantage (Kay 1993). Empirical study conducted by Fombrun and Shanley
(1990) suggests that the greater a firm’s contribution to social welfare, the
better its reputation.
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However, evidence from the data shows that this was not necessarily the case
with the banks.
The three banks share a motive when it comes to the link between CSR and
promoting corporate reputation. The diverse range of activities, depending on
differing stakeholder group expectations, has an identifiable impact on
reputation. However, the actual CSR practice fit to stakeholder groups is
outside the remit of this study. Rather, this is just to establish the motive and
relationship between a bank’s CSR practice and its impact on corporate
reputation and ultimately, competitive edge. Managers and executives in
Ghana engage in CSR activities primarily to enhance their corporate image
among customers and secondly for the wellbeing of society (Darty-Baah &
Amponsah-Tawiah, 2011). According to Access, CSR helps to position the
bank in the minds of their stakeholders:
According to Fidelity, CSR gives the bank a positive perception and supports
the bank in having a competitive edge:
“One major advantage that comes with CSR is public perception. And
when you are perceived by the public as contributing to social good it
gives the brand a favourable perception… every ounce of perception
counts because that’s what will influence decision makers. So reputation
and perception is very key to influencing customers’ choices and
decisions.” (Brand Manager, Fidelity)
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going down the route of publicity, the bank was aiming to be known as a
socially responsible bank. Indeed, the bank believes its brand is being
identified as one that is socially responsible:
“My argument around CSR is that whether we want publicity or not it’s a
win-win situation and someone gets something from it. So our agenda
has to impact the lives of the local people… The image of the
organisation is continually becoming synonymous with our CSR practice
and some of our shareholders are also members of the community, so
whatever we do in the community also impacts them.” (Corporate
Communications Officer, UT Bank)
The debate on whether community relations are strategic bores down to the
purpose of public relations, for when efforts by the banks to combat social
issues are for publicity as opposed to creating social impact then this becomes
problematic.
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Carroll (1991) refers to. According to the data, the legitimacy of CSR
addressed the business’ economic responsibility to society as the most
fundamental, and identified what managers do in implementing this obligation.
Economic responsibilities
Over the years, it has become apparent that an organisation’s pursuit of
financial gain has to take place within the laws of the land (Carr, 1996). The
research data confirms with literature that the profit motive of these banks is
the primary incentive for business operations. The main justification for the
economic responsibility being fundamental is that all the other components are
dependent on the bank’s being financially stable and sound. For example,
Fidelity confirms the need to be profitable in order to build a financially
inclusive sector.
“In order of priority, making money is high on our list, and it is the means
through which we will be able to make an impact. We need to be
increasingly more profitable, because the vision that we have spelt out
for ourselves as a bank, especially on the issue of financial inclusion and
bringing in the unbanked – deploying of technology, trying to device new
and innovative ways of trying to get them to bank with us – that costs
money. So when we make money we can help build a more financially
inclusive banking sector.” (Head of Marketing, Fidelity)
By the same token, the banks recognise the fact that their success is based
on society’s demand for the banks’ products and services to make a decent
profit in the process. This approach is similar to the economic responsibility
taken by companies in Europe, in contrast to the narrow focus on profitability
taken by corporate America (Crane & Matten, 2007):
Hence, the economic implications of CSR are essential for the managers from
the viewpoint that not only are they committed to being consistently profitable,
but also aim at maintaining a competitive position through being socially
responsible. However, it is noteworthy that CSR potential is huge, although
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they appear in primarily non-strategic forms with minimal strategic operations.
Table 6.1 summarises some important characteristics of an organisation’s
economic responsibilities according to Carroll (1991) and how the bank
represents these characteristics.
The banks had different reactions to what the impact of their CSR practices
had on shareholder’s interest. The differences were dependent on whether
they were privately-held or publicly-held. Fidelity Bank which is privately-held
was less accountable to shareholders so long as their expenditure on CSR
supported the community. On the other hand, UT which is publicly-owned
noted the importance of their CSR interventions, as members of the
community were also a significant proportion of their shareholders. Hence, the
bank was supporting the very people that had vested financial interests in the
bank, making the impact of their CSR actions more visible and justified.
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Most CSR activities of all the banks were not aligned with their core business
operations, bringing into question the issue of long-term profitability. The non-
strategic CSR operations were presented in the form of philanthropic acts
which do not have any bearing on the core business operations of the banks.
However, it was clear that these donations and contributions were of high
expectations from society, hence, an essential contribution to the financial
welfare of the banks. Additionally, they were used for media publicity and
helped with building a good image in the society, which supported business
development. Although reference to CSR influencing reputation was identified,
there was very little evidence of any formal strategic approach linking CSR
activities with their communications strategy. It has to be noted at this point
that it is out of the scope of this study to investigate the direct linkages between
the banks’ CSR activities, reputation and their financial performance. From the
strategic viewpoint, Fidelity and UT especially are taking initiatives to be more
sustainable by implementing strategic CSR through their financial inclusion
and financial literacy programmes, respectively.
The banking sector has proved very competitive in the last five years, following
changing regulations. The proliferation of banks over recent years in the sector
(especially from 2006 to 2013) has meant strong competition within a relatively
small country. Secondly, most of the branches are located in urban areas,
creating even greater competition in these localised areas. The dynamics
within the banking sector, therefore, present the challenge of each bank
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creating and maintaining a competitive edge through differentiation.
Similarities in the CSR practices of the three banks, especially in terms of
philanthropy do not present significant competitive advantage. The data,
however, recognised each case’s forte in their approach to CSR practice which
in future could be developed as their strengths to create a strong competitive
position. For example, Fidelity’s strength in financial inclusion and Access’
strength in employee volunteering programme.
Legal responsibilities
The legal responsibilities of the banks are mandatory and either coexist with
economic responsibilities, or recognised as an extension of their ethical
responsibilities. According to Carroll (1991), the legal obligation of a business
is to comply with the laws and regulations of the state or government and given
the right to operate for profit by society. In other words, as a partial fulfilment
of the ‘social contract’ between business and society, firms are expected to
pursue their economic missions within the framework of the law of the land:
We are not in any way looking to make money at the expense of obeying
the law, which is why in the last ten months there’s been an intensive
anti-money laundering course for every employee in this bank. It was
ordered by the Central Bank but we’ve been one of the first banks to
ensure that everybody is AML compliant… So, even though we want to
make money, first we want to be law-abiding as a …Assuming that we
take the legal responsibility more seriously than anything else, then we
think about how creatively within the law, we can make the most money
for this organisation… Once we do that, we will be able to share the
wealth that we have with society. So, I’ll say legal and economy are on
the same level. (Head of Marketing, Fidelity)
Considering the fact that the law is a derivative of ethics in the sense that the
former captures notions of fair operations, it is no wonder the relationship
between the two responsibilities in all three cases is so strong. This
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responsibility is particularly strong in this context perhaps because of the
nature of the banking business, and also the caution being taken by the sector
to avoid repeating the mistakes of the banks in the West.
Table 6.2 provides supporting evidence from the data on some of the
characteristics of the banks’ legal responsibilities.
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Ethical responsibilities
The banks perceive their ethical responsibilities as being a natural derivative
of their CSR practices, especially where the community investments and
relations projects are concerned. According to Carroll (1991), ethical
responsibilities represent those actions and practices that are expected or
prohibited by society even though they are not codified into law. This explains
why Lantos (2001) supports this definition with the organisation being morally
responsible to any individual or group where it might inflict actual or potential
injury from a particular course of action. Additionally, it is those actions that
are taken because they are right, not because they are profitable (Chewning
et al, 1990; Goodpaster, 1996; Miller & Ahrens, 1993). Good ethical and moral
behaviour in the long run builds trust and enhances the banks’ reputation,
which attracts customers, employees, suppliers and distributors, along with
earning the public’s goodwill (Lantos, 2001). This explains why the banks
attribute the success of their business development to their ethical actions,
which represent their CSR practice, and is a trade-off between short-run
profitability and moral actions. As a result, apportioning priority to ethical
responsibilities makes it as important a component as philanthropy. This is not
consistent with Carroll’s reference to ethical responsibility being a desired
behaviour.
“I think things are changing now, but ethical and philanthropy will
probably take the centre stage of our economic success because
customers will buy our products if they know that we are a socially
responsible organisation. It provides a competitive edge for us...” (Brand
Manager, Access Bank)
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becoming a sponsor of the campaign because it involved children. Fidelity
confirms the relationship between their ethical and legal responsibilities:
“We run our business within the confines of the law, as well as being
ethically responsible… Being legal and ethical is intertwined – you can’t
be legal and not be ethical and vice versa. It’s impossible to behave
illegally and claim to be ethical – it’s not possible.” (Head of Marketing,
Fidelity)
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Table 6.3: Demonstrating Ethical Responsibilities
Representative data from banks Characteristics of ethical
responsibility
Philanthropic responsibilities
As identified before, philanthropy was the main CSR practice across all three
cases. In an attempt to be good corporate citizens, each of the cases
responded to society’s expectations by being heavily engaged in providing
contributions of financial and time resources, programs and activities to
promote social welfare and community goodwill.
“Philanthropy is great, but I think it has been a focus too long and a lot of
resources have gone there. I think we need to move away from
philanthropy and move towards real sustainable, social investment in
creating an impact. Let’s make money but let’s not rely on philanthropy…
It’s been self-propagating because I think we’ve honoured so many of
those requests, word gets around that if you need funds, go to Fidelity.”
(Head of Marketing, Fidelity)
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philanthropy as a mandatory requirement because the societal expectations
in Ghana, according to the banks are so high, that the banks have no option
but to provide it.
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Table 6.4: Demonstrating Philanthropic Responsibilities
Representative data from banks Characteristics of Philanthropic
responsibility
Overall, it is evident that CSR in the context of Ghanaian banks are both
strategic and non-strategic in their approach, with the latter which is mainly
philanthropic, being unanimously a significant contributor of economic welfare
to the banks. Philanthropic acts, which are integral to the national and
subsequently, the organisational culture, are viewed largely as essential and
required contributors to sustain the banks economically. In other words, the
dynamics of CSR in this context are largely driven by the underlying traditions
of the country.
Cultural responsibilities
The issue of culture came up several times, when managers were asked about
whether there were any other key factors in their opinion that drove CSR
responsibilities. The nature of the responses that were received, however,
begs the question: Is “culture” a responsibility or a driver that underpins the
responsibility? Although culture was referred to mostly from an organisational
viewpoint, there was inference of how national culture had impacted
organisational culture. The spirit and practice of CSR in Africa and developing
200
countries strongly resonates with traditional communitarian values and
religious concepts (Dartey-Baah & Amponsah-Tawiah, 2011) which is also
exemplified by African humanism – Ubuntu – in South Africa (Visser, 2007).
According to Cameron and Quinn (1998), culture defines the core values,
assumptions, interpretations and approaches that characterise an
organisation. Although the research data did not seek to identify the specific
values that interpret the organisational phenomenon, it is implicit in some of
the cases how the values orientations of the banks affect their CSR practice:
“...we are Ghanaians, proud of our past and our heritage; yet our values,
our thinking, our output can match any global or multinational company.
We strive to keep up pace with the world, yet we make sure we have our
minds at our heritage and our values. This is the big agenda for Fidelity
for 2013, and that is where the CSR agenda too is derived from.” (Brand
Manager, Fidelity Bank)
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being socially responsible and in implementing our CSR agenda. The
people who are the key actors in the system executing the agenda should
have a certain mind-set to be able to do this successfully. This is not
necessarily so in this bank at the moment. We need to make every
member of staff at Fidelity understand that in trying to make a lot of
money, we are going to do it on the back of behaving properly and
meaningfully.... But we need to tune our organisational culture to the
point where when we are devoting a lot of the resources to some of those
things, everybody is with us and employees understand – not thinking
we should be paying bonuses, for example. We need to get
organisational culture and buy-in to a point where our CSR focus is sold
to our employees. The culture will be key to make us understand what
we do to make a lasting impact on society. Which means that our most
important stakeholders are key to making the organisation’s wealth, and
sharing it between them and the society in a way that they are
comfortable with. And the only way they’ll be comfortable is if they are
well educated on why we need to share our wealth with the country. We
can’t make assumptions because people are a lot more selfish. So
organisational culture will be another responsibility to focus on. We still
have a way to go on this issue – we’ve only just started to get everyone
on the same page.” (Head of Marketing, Fidelity)
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“Our culture is very much hinged on societal good. We are not
individualistic people, unlike in Europe or US where family is just about
husband, wife and kids; even your mom and dad are not a part. But in
the context of who we are as Ghanaians, you have your parents, your in-
laws and selected cousins as part of your immediate family.” (Brand
Manager, Fidelity Bank)
“Our campaign for the next 18 months is to sell a new consciousness for
Ghanaians... the campaign will build an awareness on how we are a
world class bank right here in Ghana for the Ghanaian consumer.” (Head
of Marketing, Fidelity)
When questioned whether external culture was excluded, the manager stated:
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solve external issues will be met with resistance.” (Head of Marketing,
Fidelity)
The focus of each bank on a certain type of CSR practice is only indicative of
their orientation and not an identification of a dominant culture type. This
research did not set out to identify the cultural types of each bank. Indeed, it
is apparent from the discussions that culture is a significant element in
influencing the social responsibility behaviours of each of the banks. Several
empirical studies suggest that culture may have an important influence on
CSR practice (Burton et al, 2000; Visser, 2005; Pinkston & Carroll, 1994;
Edmondson & Carroll, 1999). With the data collected, the researcher is able
to interpret to an extent “how” the banks construct their environment to
accommodate CSR and “what” behaviour patterns are discernible in terms of
CSR, however, there is not enough information to understand the complete
logic – “why” they behave in the way they do. To understand the latter, the
type(s) of organisational culture has to be identified, which is out of scope of
this study and further research will be required to identify the dominant cultural
type of each bank and its implication on CSR. At Access, one manager
referred to culture as a key driver to how CSR projects are adapted from the
overall Group agenda:
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He continues to acknowledge the relevance of CSR reporting to reflect the
adaptation implemented as a point of reference for future projects:
“For instance, if we’re reporting on Ghana, the statistics are very relevant
to the country to help in deciding the way forward on future projects.”
(Brand Manager, Access Bank)
“As much as we work within a community where there are cultural issues,
it plays a very important role in developing and implementing the project.
I will give you an example – we worked with an NGO that deals with
providing fresh water for the rural areas. And to ours and the NGOs
surprise when we went to these villages to drill bore holes for drinking
water, the villagers protested that the holes should be drilled further away
from the village. The reason being that the women must be able to walk
a fair distance to fetch water.” (Public Relations Officer, UT Bank)
In this context, a fair distance implied a location away from the village, allowing
the women to continue having the ‘walk’ to fetch water. This was a time during
which relationships were made and a lot of social interaction took place
between the women. Indeed, culture provides opportunity for UT to develop
their CSR projects:
“I guess culture does. We know the people we are dealing with. We know
their way of life, hence, we want to develop CSR projects that fit into their
cultural expectations. For example, the market traders typically think of
buying and selling only. However, if we take that the opportunity and
teach them to buy, sell and save for tomorrow it makes a difference for
them. In addition, it is also culturally right – in our saying we say that, “our
parents help us to grow our teeth, and we help them when they have lost
their teeth”. It’s the same context here where the society has helped the
bank to be what we are so it’s important to help them too. That’s the same
with CSR, so culturally; I think it works quite well. With our blood donation
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project, there is an Akan proverb that says that “Sika ye mogya” – which
means “money is blood” – which implies that if people are saving their
money with us, then we as a bank should be able to draw out something
that saves somebody’s life. This makes blood donation and banking
synonymous to making investments – life and future.” (Media & Public
Relations Manager, UT Bank)
6.5 Conclusion
In conclusion, culture is a key driver of the nature of CSR practice of banks in
Ghana. As shown in Figure 6.2, the expectations of society, which are driven
by societal mores and norms, lead to the CSR behaviour of the banks. The
banks perceive adhering to society’s expectations through philanthropic
interventions, which are influenced by ethical notions, as critical to the
economic success of their business operations. The controversy lies in the fact
that an approach that is implemented in such an unsystematic, ad hoc and
non-strategic manner is so important to the survival of these banks. The
concept of CSR practice in the context of Ghanaian banks therefore differs in
terms of the interrelation dynamics of the banks’ CSR behaviours and culture.
The next chapter therefore addresses this new concept and the contributions
to knowledge.
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CSR in Ghanaian
banks
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7 Conclusion
7.1 Introduction
This chapter builds on the discussion in Chapter 6 and sets out to present and
transform the contribution to CSR into a dynamic, tentative and inductive
model that describes and explains the phenomenon under investigation. In this
chapter, any “deep structure” (Chomsky, 1964) and “deep processes” (Gioia
et al, 2010) in the interrelationships are presented to reveal contribution to
knowledge. Thus, the researcher will seek to unify the contributions into a
theoretical construct. The discussions will also indicate implications to
managers and develop propositions to guide future research.
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of what CSR practice in Ghanaian banks looks like via the dynamic interplay
of some key components. This empirical model focuses explicitly on what it
looks like rather than what it should look like. The contextual nature of the
study with regards to how CSR was practised and its meaning in each unit of
investigation required a model per case. This illustrates the similarities as well
as the differences in each of the cases. Insights into the nature of CSR
practices and its role in these banks’ responsibilities linked with an
understanding of its key influencers. The dearth of socio-economic basic
welfare due to government neglect is established. Additionally, the study
suggests that culture is a significant influencer which has resulted in a state in
which banks feel the need to take responsibility of societal needs. This urge to
support social needs is also backed by cultural values and expectations from
the society which subsequently determines the types of CSR practices.
The study determined the meaning of CSR in the Ghanaian context and in
relation to the explanations given by Carroll in various studies and the
literature. The emergent CSR model which is developmental and therefore
may change in future, depicts the relationship of the responsibilities in
operation in the banks, as a result of the influencers that drive CSR practices
in the context of this study. This is made possible by initially identifying the
nature of CSR in these banks.
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The emergent CSR model challenges the depiction of CSR as an order of
dependence and reflection of relative importance of components assigned by
managers (Carroll, 1991, 2004). This study suggests the dependence is
neither cumulative nor linear but rather more integrated and simultaneous. In
other words, the components are not necessarily distinctively separate from
one another and have rather blurred borders and strong interrelationships.
Hence, in agreement with Visser (2006) who supported De Jongh (2004),
suggesting without any empirical evidence that in the African context, instead
of adapting and tinkering with Carroll’s pyramid, it is better conceptually
presented to demonstrate the dynamic relationships, as well as the
interdependence of the components. Therefore, this is in disagreement with
Carroll’s ordered components as the representation of all organisations’ CSR
operations (De Jongh & Prinsloo, 2005; Springett, 2003; Visser, 2003;
Welford, 2003). These interrelationships are better presented in a spiral or
cyclical model.
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CSR of Ghanaian Banks
In order to answer the primary question of how CSR is understood and
practised in rapidly developing sub-Saharan African economies; the first
objective was to identify CSR practices in the context of Ghana as a
developing country.
The study indicates four theoretical dimensions emerged from the analysis in
the subsequent order of importance (see Table 4.5) – philanthropy, community
relations and investment, employee welfare, and corporate reputation. Each
bank had particular types of CSR activity that support them in gaining
competitive advantage by identifying and engaging with a range of
stakeholders – customers, employees, and partners (Brodie et al, 2006; Lusch
et al, 2007). The purpose of developing and maintaining these relationships is
to ensure that the banks are deemed as good citizens in the community
(Freeman et al, 2004). Philanthropy stood out as the most common and
important CSR activity based on evidence of practice shown in the secondary
data as well as how much it was discussed in the interviews. Additionally,
philanthropy identified as the primary CSR practice across the three banks,
was a contributor to business development as well as the communities’
dependence on these acts of giving.
The empirical evidence suggests that the main reason why philanthropy was
strongly linked to the success of the banks was based on cultural expectations
of the society and the influence of culture on the behaviours of the banks.
Thus, at the core of the CSR operations is a key influencer, culture, which is
deemed essential in affecting both the internal and external operations of the
banks in terms of socially responsible behaviours and practices. Although
performed in mainly an ad hoc manner, from the banks’ perspective, this
activity contributes to their success, thus remains essential collateral for
relationship with the community. An additional benefit derived from
philanthropic activities was public relations which were worth the effort and
financial sacrifice to create value in the community, thus enhancing the bank’s
reputation and the long-run financial performance (Deigh et al, 2016). Thus,
philanthropy in some instances was used by the banks for the purpose of
building a good image and reputation – a finding in accordance with Lantos
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(2001). Therefore, in the context of this study, philanthropy no longer sits at
the top of the pyramid as a discretionary or desired component of CSR, as
suggested by Carroll et al (1999), but as an essential and required component
of CSR. Philanthropy operates simultaneously to affect the reputation of these
banks for the sake of business development and economic benefits, thus is
positioned across the economic responsibilities of each of the banks. The
contribution of the banks’ philanthropic practices to their economic success is
an instrumental value added to the theory of CSR.
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businesses analyse their opportunities for social responsibility using the same
framework that informs their core business choices. Thus, the example of one
of the banks collaborating with the unbanked community to invest in the
community is a good example of the bank and community supporting shared
objectives by creating cost-effective banking solutions to improve
competitiveness, and promote trust and add to the value of social capital within
that community.
In terms of employee welfare, there was limited evidence of how the banks
supported employees. This finding is in contrast to how the role and rights of
employees are viewed as long-standing items on CSR agendas in developed
economies (Matten & Moon, 2008). Indeed, in the empirical evidence, there
was debate on whether employee welfare issues were categorised under
human resources. The lack of clarity on whether employee welfare belongs to
the banks’ CSR agenda perhaps explains the lack of attention in this area
where a good basic salary and some benefits seemed sufficient. The lack of
concern for employee welfare issues by Ghanaian firms is confirmed and
addressed by Dartey-Baah and Amponsah-Tawiah (2011). The employee
welfare issue has implications on the ethical stance of this bank.
The data established that the use of CSR for these banks was in some cases
for publicity purposes – to build the image of the brand, to create awareness
and to create a positive perception and reputation of the banks in the
communities. Communication in the press by all three banks is in the form of
news or editorial and for information purposes, therefore, suggesting an
opportunity for the stakeholders to make an informed decision on their
perception of the banks. The functional situation of CSR in the departments
confirms this purpose – Corporate Affairs, Marketing and Media and Public
Relations, although there had been a recent strategic move in Fidelity from
Marketing to CSR & FI. Reputation of a business reflects the relative success
in fulfilling the expectations of the multiple stakeholders (Freeman, 1984;
Fombrun, 1996). The success of these banks is evidenced not only by the
year-on-year profit growth across all three banks, but also, the increase in
customer base especially in the case of UT. This confirms the argument by
Fombrun and Shanley (1990) that a good reputation enables firms to charge
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premium prices, enhance access to capital markets and attract better clients
and investors. Ultimately, a good reputation helps the banks gain competitive
advantage, as indicated by Kay (1993) about businesses. The challenge,
however, in this context, is how each bank significantly achieves competitive
advantage within the context of the Ghanaian marketplace. Additionally, it is
worth challenging the direct link between social responsibility and the financial
performance of the banks which is outside the scope of this study.
In any case, communication was not used to encourage dialogue between the
banks and their stakeholders, and therefore, not being used strategically for
insight and understanding of the needs and expectations of the stakeholders.
This has implications for how decisions are made on the CSR approach, and
also explains the lack of criteria for decision-making on CSR interventions.
Ptacek and Salazar (1997) suggest that businesses are driven to find new
ways to make their promotions relevant to society, to seek dialogue and to be
responsive and involving. This type of communication resonates with Grunig
and Hunt (1984) whereas, ideally, it might be more economically beneficial to
the banks in the long term. Certainly in the context of this study, there is very
little evidence of the banks seeking dialogue but rather relying on requests
from the community. Without relevant and ample knowledge of CSR
opportunities in society which are measured in relation to the businesses
resources and capabilities, how then do the banks have criteria to approach
CSR in a strategic way that ensures that both business and community
benefit? The non-strategic approach explains why it is then possible for
individual managers to make decisions on which projects to spend on, without
collective support from the organisation. However, it is fair to say at this point
that the aspect of a manager making a decision on funding a project because
of their personal affiliation to the particular project potentially has its own
benefits due to the personal touch associated with the intervention. Although
CSR was used in a number of cases for reputation purposes, the nature of its
link to the overall corporate communication strategy was not clear. The
assumption is that if a significant number of CSR interventions were reactive,
then their use for building reputation was also reactive. Whereas, if they were
integrated into an overall strategic plan, then the banks would know in advance
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what projects they are involved with and how this would play in their
communications strategy.
In sum, CSR has some influence on the reputation of the banks, albeit not in
a strategic manner. Although the banks consistently seek to use their CSR
interventions to promote their businesses, there is still room to develop a
robust communication strategy. Additionally, a bank like Fidelity seeks to move
towards a strategic approach – and there are internal changes within the bank
to prove their strategic direction. Finally, there is an opportunity for the banks
to approach their communications using CSR more strategically. This has the
potential to increase the economic benefits the banks currently enjoy from their
reactive approach.
The second objective of this study was to develop and propose a model of
CSR in retail banking in Ghana. The emergent models for each bank which
will be discussed shortly are represented in Figures 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3. In these
figures, the yellow ring represents philanthropy and the grey, represents
cultural influences. In agreement with the classical economic argument that
management has one responsibility – to maximise the profit of its owners and
shareholders (Friedman, 1970) – the purpose of the primary establishment of
the three cases was for profitability. Whether privately-held by a handful of
private investors, or publicly-held by a high number of individuals and
organisations made no difference to the primary objective of all three banks.
The economic status of each of the banks was therefore fundamental to their
CSR responsibility as a business. This confirms with Friedman (1970) on
businesses making money as well as conforming to the expectations of
society. In the context of a developing economy, the expectation of society in
Ghana is not only primarily underpinned by the culture of the society, but also
the requirement to affect the business environment in order to facilitate
business operations which captures the relevance of the legal and ethical
requirements. Additionally, although the approach to philanthropy was varied
and “messy” in terms of its ad hoc implementation and rather loose criteria of
what corporate philanthropy should look like, it was considered highly
prioritised in this context of CSR practice and inclusive in the cultural
expectations of the society. Nevertheless, with a competitive banking
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marketplace, it was recognised that charitable giving could no longer be
justified. This is argued by Bronn and Vrioni (2001) from the viewpoint that
customers and stakeholders have an eye on the organisations CSR
behaviour; whether they are donating for goodwill or are actively concerned in
investing and fixing societal problems. With a fast growing financial services
sector and an ever-changing society, keeping up the consistency of non-
strategic giving is challenging.
Where the banks were more consistent and longer-term CSR activities such
as EVP, financial literacy programmes, and financial inclusion were used to
create awareness and build reputation, this is supported by Fombrum and
Shanley (1990) empirical study which suggests that the greater a firm’s
contribution to social welfare, the better its reputation and a competitive
advantage within their industries.
In the case of UT, in addition to philanthropy, the other main focus of CSR is
financial skills training via the bank’s financial literacy programme. The
objective for this programme is to train adults in the communities to learn how
to keep their books and save their money. The primary target audience for this
programme is market traders who are informal sole traders and make up a
large segment of the informal sector. To put this into context, 80% of the
Ghanaian workforce is employed in the informal sector (Osei-Boateng &
Ampratwum, 2011). As indicated earlier, a large segment of the bank’s
business customers has shareholdings in the bank. Additionally, they
represent existing as well as potential customers, making them an essential
group in the community for this bank. UT also approaches other CSR activities
in the community through partnerships with non-profit organisations who
already have a good knowledge of the cause or issue in the community. This
means that they can support the community without being experts in a
particular sector. Thus, UT has a high dependence on its philanthropic
interventions as well as community programmes to gain goodwill and social
trust which then feeds into the business development aspects of its operations.
Hence, there is a link between social needs and expectations, the bank’s CSR
activities and its economic responsibility, thus, making CSR and specifically
philanthropy a required and mandatory practice for the survival of the bank.
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This explains the positioning of philanthropy spanning across from the cultural
core of the business and the economic responsibilities.
The first model presented is that of UT bank. Figure 7.1 illustrates the
contribution to knowledge of how CSR practices and responsibilities are
related in UT bank. The yellow ring indicates the interrelationship of
philanthropic responsibilities with economic and ethical responsibilities, and
underpinned by cultural influences within and without the banks operations
(illustrated in grey).
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Philanthropy Culture
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resonates with Putnam’s (1995) account of social capital. It is worth noting at
this point that further research will be required to explore the validity of the role
of EVP in generating social capital from stakeholder’s perspective. However,
in the context of this study, EVP contributes in varying ways which are
classified as ethical to improve the living conditions of the local communities
through which the interactions create networks of relationships, thus,
facilitating cooperation and collective action between the bank’s employees
and the local communities. According to Kuada and Hinson (2007), foreign
banks (in this case, a bank of Nigerian origin) use CSR as deliberate strategies
to strengthen their corporate image. According to Access, the main goal was
to obtain acceptance and the ‘licence to operate’ in the whole community.
There is, therefore, an important and significant link and integration between
Access’s need for acceptance in the Ghanaian society, its CSR practice and
the economic responsibility. This is indicative of the relationship between
philanthropic behaviour and cultural expectations, and contribution of CSR to
the banks’ economic welfare through trust and building awareness. Similarly,
the economic and philanthropic responsibilities of the bank are both deemed
required and mandatory. Additionally, Access perceives their ethical behaviour
as a prerequisite to legal responsibility. Figure 7.2 illustrates the dynamics
between the various responsibilities, with culture being a catalyst.
219
Philanthropy Culture
In the case of Fidelity, it was again evident that philanthropy is still very much
the main CSR practice. Additionally, the development of financial inclusion
programmes is a huge part of its community investment activities. The financial
inclusion approach, which has ethical connotations, is strategically linked to
the core business and fundamental to the economic responsibility and
financial growth of the bank. Integrating CSR initiatives in business is one of
the great challenges facing businesses in balancing societal stakeholder
requirements and the business profitability. According to Porter and Kramer
(2006), there are great opportunities for businesses to benefit from society by
integrating CSR and business strategy. They added that “the more closely tied
a social issue is to a company’s business, the greater the opportunity to
leverage the firm’s resources – and benefit society” (Porter and Kramer, 2006
p.88). This implies that these banks apply their distinctive strengths to select
and operate specific CSR initiatives in order to reap the full benefits. According
to Margolis and Walsh (2003), the ability to leverage CSR practice to improve
competitiveness and increase long-term profitability and growth makes a wise
investment. In the context of this study, the financial inclusion and financial
literacy programmes pose as evidence in favour of making a business case
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for CSR in an ethical manner. Although at the early stages of development,
comparatively Fidelity Bank has more closely aligned its CSR practices with
its core business operations through its financial inclusion initiatives.
Additionally, the legal responsibility is important - a specific example from
Fidelity is adhering to the anti-money laundering regulations put in place by
the Bank of Ghana, which has led to the bank training its staff to handle all
issues related to money laundering. Culture is perceived to be a continuing
primary influencer to how CSR practice evolves in this bank through the
Ghanaian Excellence theme that underpins the corporate strategy. Figure 7.3
illustrates the nature of interactions between the responsibilities. Similar to
Figure 7.2, philanthropy spans across the economic and ethical
responsibilities of Fidelity bank.
Philanthropy Culture
The second research objective was to develop and propose a CSR model for
retail banking in Ghana. The implications of the findings on CSR in the context
of a developing country in contributing to knowledge does not comprise distinct
components of responsibilities but rather an integration of these dynamic
components to constitute a whole. The findings also suggest that culture
underpins and influences the CSR behaviour of the banks which supports
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Crane and Matten (2004) who not only suggests culture as a potentially
important influence on CSR but also the CSR responsibilities having difference
significance in different contexts. Whilst culture sits at the core of CSR practice
in the Ghanaian banking context (depicted in grey in Figures 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3),
the empirical evidence demonstrates that the components are not mutually
exclusive, with the economic responsibilities of each of the banks integrated
particularly with one or two types of philanthropic activities which are core to
their CSR practice. In all three cases, CSR in the form of philanthropy is not
an added value or “an icing on the cake” for the business as interpreted by
Carroll (1979, 1999) but rather a component which is essential to the economic
growth and success of the bank. This is illustrated in Figures 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3
as a yellow circle indicating the close contributory relationship between the
banks philanthropic responsibilities and the economic responsibilities of the
banks. The nature of the philanthropic interventions is seen as ethical in the
sense that they actually do save the community from harm, irrespective of
whether they are directly linked to the operations of the banks. This leads to a
part-fulfilment of the banks’ legal obligations, whilst according to the banks,
satisfying the legal obligations of the sector is a given. Therefore
demonstrating the strong interrelationships between the ethical and legal
components (which could arguably be interchangeable) make them required
and expected. Additionally, each bank presents certain factors that they see
as worth delving into in the near future as beneficial to the business. Although
this is out of scope of the investigation, they are worth mentioning. In all cases,
these factors – welfare of the youth, capacity building, technology, and
evolving culture – are seen as being essential to the future of CSR. Although
these factors are deemed for the future, the banks have a responsibility to
adapt to changing trends in society in a timely fashion. Hence, they are not
presented in the CSR model.
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culturally significant CSR priority to both the society and the businesses. The
initial conceptual framework in Figure 3.6 is revisited to address the nature of
CSR within the researched context of a developing country. This is depicted
in Figure 7.4 where CSR responsibilities of a domestic retail bank are
underpinned by the culture from within and without the organisation. Internal
to the organisation, the CSR model demonstrates that the economic
responsibility of the banks is highly influenced by the CSR practices of these
banks, with philanthropy being the primary type of CSR undertaken. The
tension between ethical and legal responsibilities shows the dominance of
ethical responsibility being the catalyst for the banks’ legal responsibilities.
However, this does not downplay on the importance of legal responsibilities
for these banks. Additionally, the relationship between the banks and the
society is influenced by the CSR activities that contribute to meeting the needs
and expectations of the local community, as well as the business opportunities
and particularly the economic responsibility that CSR interventions support
and fulfil. Indeed, it was evident that there was a reliance on the banks to
develop their business and business environment, as well as create legitimacy
for operation through their CSR interventions.
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to cater for the social welfare of the society and a strong cultural sense of
community. There is also the occasional benchmarking against international
criteria stipulated by the Global Compact and Millennium Development Goals
which operates rather weakly.
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the economic responsibilities of the banks are impacted by philanthropic
activities are influenced by the ethical stances of these banks. The legal
responsibilities are mandatory in all cases and strongly linked to the ethical
obligations of these banks. Underpinning all these responsibilities are the
cultural obligations and expectations of both the organisation and the society
which determines the nature of dynamics that take place between all the
responsibilities which determines CSR in the context of the developing country
of Ghana as demonstrated in Figure 7.4.
The ability for the banks to determine the tangible benefits of CSR is unclear,
thus putting into question some of the choices of projects made by managers
on CSR to be undertaken. Secondly, as CSR reporting is not a legal
requirement for listed companies in Ghana, this leaves very little justification
for the non-listed companies. For instance, shareholders are an important
group of stakeholders driving corporate management. According to Schneth
(2003), the demands of shareholders over the years expanded to include non-
financial expectations of corporate conduct, therefore, becoming concerned
with both social and financial aspects of their investments. However, in the
context of this study, there is no indication of shareholder influence in decision-
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making on neither CSR interventions nor CSR being an indicating factor for
shareholder investment. The shareholders’ attitude to CSR participation is
seemingly accepted in a passive manner without any obvious input into the
“what” and the “how” of management of the corporate CSR agenda to
contribute to shareholder value. Thirdly, responsibility to employees was seen
by two of the banks as the duty of Human Resources and not categorised as
a social responsibility, hence, surprisingly employee welfare issues held very
little priority in the banks’ CSR practices. This is in vast contrast to the social
responsibility of some European companies, such as Danish ones, who view
the employees’ welfare as a priority. The lack of measure of social
performance is consistent with on-going literature debate regarding
parameters or indicators by which the impact of CSR practice should be
measured in developing countries.
There were also implications for managers from the viewpoint that this
investigation was studying the CSR practice from managers’ perspective. The
current practice of CSR especially in the area of philanthropic contributions
goes against the grain of strategic CSR because the latter are not aligned with
meeting business goals. This has potential adverse implications on economic
benefits, financial efficiency and value added. Thus, banks have the
opportunity to direct philanthropic contributions and investments to areas that
ultimately support their long-term strategic goals (Jamali, 2001). To fully exploit
the strategic potential of CSR practice involves the challenge of good planning
and consideration of internal resources and competencies. Currently, the
majority of the managers are experts in areas such as public relations,
branding and communications, and have had CSR bolted onto their
responsibilities. This situation potentially limits the advancement of CSR in
their organisations. Additionally, the ability to proactively educate all
employees in order to have a shared vision and values presents a common
ground on which ethical behaviour and strategic activities stand, inside and
outside the organisation. This shared commitment can then be built into the
bank’s mission and core values and ultimately reflect in the organisation’s
corporate strategy.
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Current reference to communication is primarily directed to the reputation and
publicity of the banks. The lack of a dialogue process with stakeholders limits
opportunities for development of CSR. A review of communications processes
to provide two-way dialogue channels between banks and stakeholders will
build a better understanding of societal needs, local peculiarities and
appropriate solutions. To fully exploit the strategic potential of CSR practice
involves the challenge of environmental scanning, good planning and
consideration of internal resources and competencies. This will aid in
proactiveness and effective responsiveness rooted in knowledge of the
external environment (Wood, 1991). Additionally, an opportunity for managers
to work closely with stakeholders to develop a sector-specific CSR policy. This
should be a derivative from either the current make-shift national policy, or
adaptations from some useful international standards such as the UN Global
Compact which are context relevant. Finally, an appropriate means of
measuring and reporting CSR impact on business development and societal
welfare should be created.
227
there should be a close working relationship between the leaderships of both
the CSR and Marketing teams in order to create and increase the value added
to CSR practice in an effective and efficient manner. This will support building
the corporate reputation of the banks strategically in the long term.
The approach to strategic CSR will require measurable and achievable goals
which management are accountable for, and can be used to identify expected
benefits to the bank and stakeholders. Management have to establish a
market research team dedicated to identifying social needs as well as
measuring benefits. The team is necessary to target relevant and receptive
stakeholders for CSR activities in order to reach resolutions efficiently. The
team will also support the right partnerships with non-profit organisations and
third party relationships.
Finally, the CSR approach should be aligned with core business operations in
order to benefit both bank and stakeholders. Alignment creates a stronger
inter-relationship between CSR practice and economic benefit which then has
a positive impact on profits. Workplace policies should be revisited to reflect
truly socially responsible banks that are concerned about the welfare of their
employees. This requires the CSR function to work closely with HR to ensure
that the welfare of the employees is recognised as opposed to the current,
exclusive relationship. Additionally, individuals or groups who are actively
involved in volunteering on social responsible projects should be formerly
recognised for their efforts in order to boost employee motivation and morale
which can ultimately lead to low staff-turnover and good quality recruitment.
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Flexible approaches to CSR by management reflect the dynamic and
unpredictable environment. Managers across the sector should come together
with stakeholders such as government, NGOs and members of the community
to develop CSR policy.
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This research was limited to the financial services sector. The assumption is
that this sector does not present the obvious environmental issues CSR
interventions would normally deal with. However, due to exponential growth in
the sector there is likely to be a requirement to research changes or evolution
in the practices of CSR as there is a current dearth of CSR literature in this
sector. Additionally, there is the lack of environmental responsibilities
addressed by the CSR pyramid. The findings of this research are contextual
to the financial services sector, specifically retail banks and cannot be
assumed to be generalisable across other services sectors that may have
peculiar challenges. Therefore suggestion for further research will require
empirical studies in the different services sectors exploring the influence of
environmental issues on CSR.
The research used a multiple case study approach of three cases in the
financial sector were used and are not necessarily representative of other
banks in the same sector. It may be worth using a bigger sample as suggested
as up to ten cases (Eisenhardt, 1989) within the same sector or across
different sectors. Additionally, more data collection methods such as focus
groups and observations are available in qualitative research to provide
additional data. Further research with a larger sample and mixed methods will
potentially provide additional insights into the specified context.
230
7.6 Conclusion
The developing economy is peculiar, thus, CSR is addressed within the
context, paying attention to the economic and societal relationships. This study
establishes the nature of CSR practice in domestic banks in Ghana, with
philanthropy being the primary type. The other common and important forms
of CSR activities that take place in this context are community relations,
employee welfare and corporate reputation. These activities are essential to
the economic welfare of the banks as well as contribute positively to the
societal needs and the business environment. This finding of philanthropy
being essential suggests that Carroll’s CSR pyramid may not be an
appropriate model for understanding CSR in sub-Saharan Africa in general
and Ghana in particular. The order of the components of CSR responsibilities
interprets the differences in the importance and priority, and is presented in a
more integrated and dynamic manner compared to the suggested linear
format. In the context of this study, whilst culture is identified as a key
influencer in addressing CSR, the main CSR practise –philanthropy – is an
essential component of CSR contributing to business development and the
welfare of the society.
231
Society
CSR
responsibilities
Types of CSR
Philanthropy
Employee volunteering
Community relations
Employee welfare
Corporate reputation
Business environment
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Appendix A: Manual Categorisation of Secondary Data
November 2011
UT Bank
Annual Reports
Unique News
(Quarterly Internal
Newsletter)
268
Press Cuttings
The Heritage “UT supports Black Stars and open Giving money
accounts for players and officials with
14/7/2010 Positive
seed money. GHS1000 for players.
corporate image
GHS500 for officials
Daily Guide “UT raised funds of GHS100000 for 200 Giving money
patients in 2011... opened UT bank
22/10/10
accounts for these patients.”
269
Daily Guide “UT and Enablis Ghana (NGO) launch a Giving money
competition for entrepreneurs with good
27/10/10 Capacity building
business plans in industry sectors... and
or training
provides funding and training for the
winner to start-up.”
The Daily “UT supports the military hospital with Giving money
Searchlight cash contribution of GHS230000 to the
refurbishment and maintenance of the
18/11/2010
Trauma and Emergency Unit… in 2006,
UT also donated GHS60000 to the
unit.”
270
Access
Bank
Letters
Press Cuttings
All Sports “Access spends family day out with Giving employee
deprived children from Teshie time
8/12/2009
Orphanage, six months after entering
Social
the Ghanaian market.... they are
inclusiveness
committed to improve the quality of life
for employees and local communities.” Employee
welfare
271
JoyOnline.com “Access undertakes two volunteer Giving employee
projects. One involving providing time
5/1/2011
Christmas gifts to children and the aged
(accessed) Giving money
with food and drinks; and the second
involving refurbishing two school Giving resources
buildings... both projects were valued at (food)
GHS8000 which was raised by personal
donations from 26 employees ”.
Fidelity
Bank
Annual Reports
272
2007 “Fidelity gave 3.23% of after-tax profit to Giving money
various causes as part of CSR .... (education)
GHS2000 to University of Ghana,
Legon Financial Aid Office... GHS2000
to 37 Military Hospital to sponsor a
doctors’ specialisation... sponsored a 1
page newspaper spread on Women
Role Models in Business to encourage
women entrepreneurs in SME business
sector”. (p.11)
Press Cuttings
273
Appendix B: Interview Protocol
Title of Project:
Company:
Time of interview:
Date:
Place:
Interviewer:
Interviewee:
Position of interviewee:
Questions:
(Thank the individual for participating in this interview. Assure him or her of
confidentiality of responses and potential future interviews)
274
Interview Guide
A. Company Profile
i. Employees?
ii. Turnover?
B. Manager Profile
c. How does the CSR agenda fit in/align with your corporate
strategy?
275
E. CSR and Business (Profitability)
i. Economic responsibilities?
H. Anything else?
276
Appendix C: Consent Email
FIDELITY BANK
She was recommended by Mr. XXXXX via Fidelity Capital and I know we
have spoken about her a while ago.
As she mentioned earlier she is in town and would love to meet you guys to
conduct her research with you. She had earlier on mentioned interviewed the
MD which I mentioned to you.
She will love to come in on Wednesday or Thursday to work with your team.
Thank you very much and enjoy your New Year. Happy Holidays.
Kind Regards
XXXX
-----------------------------------------------------
On Mon, Dec 31, 2012 12:44 PM GMT:
Thanks XXX.
Dear Linda,
Best regards,
XXXX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
277
From: Researcher
To: Informant’s Name / Email address 10/07/13 at 11:00 AM
I have been working closely with Fidelity marketing department for a couple
of years now on my PhD at the University of Bedfordshire (UK), looking at
the bank's corporate social responsibility practice. If you recall, I initially got
your permission via Mrs XXXX XXXX at Fidelity Capital.
As part of the data collection process, I have to talk to key managers in the
bank. I have currently interviewed Mr XXXXX XXXX and his junior manager,
and now I am required to interview the Director/CEO of the bank. I was
therefore wondering if you could avail 1 hour of your busy time during the
week beginning 14th October for this? I am in Accra for a few days that
week, and would please like to schedule you in for either Wed 16th or Thurs
17th.
Kind regards,
Linda
Dear Linda,
Informants Name
Deputy Managing Director
O: Phone number
C: Phone number
___________________
Fidelity Bank Ghana Limited
Ridge Tower
Ridge, PMB 43
Cantonments - Accra
www.fidelitybank.com.gh
● ● ●
278
ACCESS BANK
Dear Informant,
I just wanted to update you on my research so far. Please pardon me for the
length of time it's taking - it's on part-time basis so it's taking me twice as
long.
However, I'm gradually drawing to an end with the primary research coming
up. This means that I'll have to set up interview slots with 3-4 relevant
management staff at the end of this year (early December (w/c 3rd or/and
w/c 10th). Managers will include (from bottom-up) those with responsibility in
CSR, corporate affairs, finance and CEO. This will include yourself, along
with Finance director, the boss and perhaps another relevant person your
team. With your permission, I would like to arrange either Skype or face to
face appointments for the above period.
I'll be grateful if you could kindly confirm as soon as possible. Thank you for
your ongoing help on this matter.
Take care.
Best wishes,
Linda
Dear Informant,
279
From: Matilda Asante-Asiedu <Matilda.Asante-
[email protected]>
To: Linda Deigh <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, 15 April 2013, 11:08
Subject: RE: Meet tomorrow?
Hello Linda,
Best Regards
Matilda Asante-Asiedu
Group Head, Corporate Communications &
Brand Management
Head Office
Starlets 91 Road - Opposite Accra Sports
Stadium
Osu - Accra
Tel: +233302673300 Ext: 288
Mobile: +233263007864
www.accessbankplc.com/gh
280
UT BANK
Dear Sophia,
I will be grateful if you could kindly let me know which of these days will be
best for you. I appreciate your help in this.
Regards,
Linda
--
Hi Linda,
Any of the days is ok, just call to confirm and we will be available to help.
Thank you,
Sophia
Sophia Lissah
Media & Public Relations Manager
UT Holdings
Accra
Tel: +233 202010035
281
Appendix D: Standard Ethics Consent
This document will be read by interviewer before the beginning of the interview. One
copy of this form will be left with the respondent, and one copy will be signed by the
respondent and kept by the interviewer.
Thank you for your willingness to participate in this research project. Your
participation is very much appreciated. Just before we start this interview, I would like
to reassure you that as a participant in this project you have several very definite
rights.
This interview will be kept strictly confidential and will be available only to
members of my research team, which are made of the Director of Studies and
Second Supervisor.
Excerpts of this interview may made part of the final thesis, but under no
circumstances will your name or identifying characteristics be included in this
report.
I would be grateful if you would sign this form to show that I have read you its
contents.
-------------------------------------------------------------------- (signed)
-------------------------------------------------------------------- (printed)
------------------------------------------------------------------- (dated)
(Interviewer: Keep signed copy; leave unsigned copy with the respondent)
282
Appendix E: CSR studies which used/adapted Carroll’s CSR pyramid and showing research methods
284
Appendix F: Data Structure of Emerged Themes
b) Evidence of data structure for emerged theme: Community Relations & Investment
285
A bA a Statements that convey responsibility to the employee as
a stakeholder.
Internal activities Employee welfare
Key: A More than 2 sources of interview data; a less than 2 sources of interview data;
B more than 2 sources of archival data; b less than 2 sources of archival data;
– not found
286