Corporate social responsibility reporting of banks operating in Ghana
Abstract
This study seeks to track corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting of local and foreign banks in Ghana from 2010-2014 financial year ends. Employing a qualitative approach, data used were only annual reports sourced from selected banks’ websites. We found that all selected banks reported more external than internal disclosures. Concerning internal disclosures, only one foreign bank reported product and customer initiatives whiles one local and four foreign banks reported human resource initiatives. External disclosures reported uneven community involvement and environmental focus among the selected banks. Health, education, and sports development dominate CSR initiatives and disclosure in Ghana’s banking industry.Downloads
References
Alawi, N. A. M. and Rahman, A. A. 2011. Corporate social responsibility disclosure in response to CSR award with the moderating effect of family group affiliation in Yemen. In Proceedings from the 2011 international research conference and colloquium. College of Business, University Utara Malaysia. Available online: http://www.unirazak.edu.my/colloquium2011/eproceedings. [Accessed on 12 September,, 2017].
Amponsah-Tawiah, K. and Dartey-Baah, K. 2011. Corporate social responsibility in Ghana. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2: 107-112.
Arvidsson, S. 2010. Communication of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Study of the Views of Management Teams in Large Companies. Journal of Business Ethics, 96: 339-354.
Atuguba, R. and Dowuona-Hammond, C. 2006. Corporate social responsibility in Ghana. A report to (FES-foundation), Ghana.
Bawumia, M., Owusu-Danso, T. and McIntyre, A. 2008. Ghana's reforms transform its financial sector’. IMF Survey Magazine: Countries & Region, 1-4.
Boon, E. K, and Ababio, F. 2009. Corporate social responsibility in Ghana: Lessons from the mining sector. In IAIIA09 Conference Proceedings, Impact Assessment and Human Well-Being.
Bouvain, P., Baumann, C. and Lundmark, E. 2013. CSR in financial services: A comparison between Chinese and East Asia’s banks vis-à -vis American banks. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 31: 420-439.
Branco, M. and Rodrigues, L. 2006. Communication of corporate social responsibility by Portuguese banks: a legitimacy theory perspective. Corporate Communications, An International Journal, 11: 232â€48.
Dawkins, J. 2004. Corporate Responsibility: The Communication Challenge. Journal of Communication Management, 9: 108-119.
Deegan. C, 2007. Organizational legitimacy as a motive for sustainability reporting, in: Unerman, J., Bebbington, J. and O‟Dwyer, B. (Eds.), Sustainability Accounting and Accountability, Abingdon: Rutledge, 127-49.
Ernst and Ernst 1978. Social Responsibility Disclosure: 1978 Survey, Ernst and Ernst, Cleveland, OH.
Ghana Banking Survey. 2014. The future of banking. What’s next? Price water cooper.
Gray, R., Kouhy, R.and Lavers, S. 1995a. Corporate Social and Environmental Reporting: A Review of the Literature and a Longitudinal Study of UK Disclosure. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability, 8: 47–77.
Gray, R., Kouhy, R. and Lavers, S. 1995b. Methodological themes: constructing a research database of social and environmental reporting by UK companies. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 8: 78â€101.
Guthrie, J., Cuganesan, S. and Ward, L. 2008. Industry specific and environmental reporting: The Australian food and beverage industry. Accounting Forum. 32: 1-15.
Halabi, A., Kazi, A., Dang, V. and Samy, M. 2006. Corporate social responsibility. Monash Business Review, l2: 22â€35.
Hamid, F. Z. A. 2004. Corporate social disclosure by banks and finance companies: Malaysian evidence. Corporate Ownership and Control, 1: 118â€30.
Hinson, R. 2011. Online CSR Report¬age of Award-Winning versus non Award-Winning Banks in Ghana. Journal of Infor¬mation, Communication and Ethics in Society, 9: 102-115.
Hinson, R., Boateng, R. and Madichie, N. 2010. Corporate social responsibility activity reportage on bank websites in Ghana. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 28: 498â€518.
Hinson, R. E., van Zyl, H. and Agbleze, S. 2014. An interrogation of the dialogic potential of insurance firm websites in Ghana. Information Development, 30: 59-69.
Hoepner A., and Wilson, J. 2012. Social, Environmental, Ethical and Trust (SEET) Issues in Banking: An Overview. Accessed 22nd November, 2016. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id= 1686240.
Ihlen Ø., May, S. and Barlett, J.L. 2014. Four Aces: Bringing Communication Perspectives to Corporate Social Responsibility. In: R. Tench; W. Sun and B. Jones (Eds.). Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility: Perspectives and Practice.
Islam, M. T. 2013. Linking Corporate Social Responsibility Expenditure to the Performance of Banks: A Study in the Banking Sector of Bangladesh. Bank Parikrama, 38: 109-130.
Isenmann, H. 2006. The handbook of communication and corporate social responsibility. John Wiley and sons.
Kotler, P. 2003. Marketing Management. Prentice Hall, New Jersey.
Kuada J. and Hinson, R. 2012. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices of Foreign and Local Companies in Ghana. Thunderbird International Business Review,
: 521–536.
Lawrence, S. R., Botes, V., Collins, E. and Roper, J. 2013. Does accounting construct the identity of firms as purely self-interested or as socially responsible? Meditari Accountancy Research, 21: 144–160.
Lindblom, C. K. 1994. The implication of organizational legitimacy for corporate social performance and disclosureâ€, Critical Perspectives on Accounting Conference, New York, NY.
Long, S. D., Doerer, S., and Stewart, O. 2015. Virtual ethnography: Corporate virtual diversity communication. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, 10: 175–200.
Maignan, I. and Ferrell, O. C. 2004. Corporate social responsibility and marketing: An integrative framework’, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 1, 3-19.
Moreno, A. and Capriotti, P. 2009. Communicating CSR citizenship and sustainability on the web. Journal of Communication Management, 13: 157-75.
Morsing, M. and Schultz, M. 2006. Cor¬porate Social Responsibility Communication: Stakeholder Information, Response and In¬volvement Strategies. Business Ethics: A European Review, 5: 323-338.
Narteh, B. 2013a. SME bank selection and patronage behaviour in the Ghanaian banking industry. Management Research Review, 36: 1061–1080.
Narwal, M. 2007. CSR initiatives of Indian banking industry. Social Responsibility Journal, 3: 49-60.
Newson, M. and Deegan, C. 2002. Global expectations and their association with corporate social disclosure practices in Australia, Singapore, and South Korea. The International Journal of Accounting, 37: 183-213.
Ofori, D. and Hinson, R. 2007. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) perspectives of leading firms in Ghana, Corporate Governance, 7: 178-93.
Oliver, C. 1991. Strategic responses to institutional Processes, The Academy of Management Review, 16: 145-179.
Owen, D. 2008. Chronicles of Wasted time? A Personal Reflection on the Current State of, and Future Prospects for, Social and Environmental Accounting Research. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 21: 240-267.
Porter, M. E. and Kramer, M. R. 2006. The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility’. Harvard Business Review, 84: 78-92.
Reinig, C. J., and Tilt, C. A. 2012. Corporate social responsibility issues in media releases: a stakeholder analysis of Australian banks. Issues in Social and Environmental Accounting, 2: 176-197.
Schmeltz, L. 2012. Consumer-Oriented CSR Communication: Focusing on Ability or Morality? Corporate Communication: An Inter¬national Journal, 18: 193-211.
Sobhani, F.A. Zainuddin, Y. Amran, A. & Baten M.A. 2011. Corporate sustainability disclosure practices of selected banks: a trend analysis. African Journal of Business Management, 5: 2794-2804.
Spence, C. 2009. Social and environmental reporting and the corporate ego. Business Strategy and the Environment, 18: 254–265.
The Report, Ghana 2012. Oxford business group.
Ullmann, A. 1985. Data in search of a theory: A critical examination of the relationship among social performance, social disclosure and economic performance. Academy of Management Review, 10: 540-577.
UNIDO 2002. Corporate social responsibility: implications for small and medium enterprises in developing countries. Retrieved from:www.unido.org/fileadmin/im port.
Visser, W. 2008. Corporate social responsibility in developing countries’. In A. Crane, A. McWilliams, D. Matten, J. Moon and D. Siegel (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility (473-479). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wanderley, L. S. O., Lucian, R., Farache, F., and de Sousa Filho, J. M. 2008. CSR information disclosure on the web: A context-based approach analysing the influence of country of origin and industry sector. Journal of Business Ethics, 82: 369–378.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors may use the publisher's version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors’ publisher's version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: “This is an electronic version of an article published in the African Journal of Business Ethics, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX–XXX”, DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://ajobe.journals.ac.za/pub) may be found.
The following Creative Commons license applies:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.