1Richfield A. Quarshie | 2David Ackah (PhD)
1President, Institute of Project Management Professionals Young Crew
2UNEM International Programme, Universadad Empresarial de Costa Rica
Email: richfield251@gmail.com | drackah@ipmp.edu.gh
Abstract
The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility is increasingly used in the banking industry, being perceived as a tool to develop a positive image and attract new customers. Proponent argued that corporations or firms increase long term profit by operating with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) perspective. This study sought to examine the effect of corporate social responsibility on rural and community banks. Questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument. A total of five (5) Rural Community Banks were sampled for the study. Eleven (11) respondents were chosen from each rural and community bank, making a total of 55 respondents. The respondents were chosen from 6 categories of stakeholders of each bank. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were used to analyze all the data on the research questions for the study. The study revealed that Corporate Social Responsibility has effect on the commitment of stakeholders. Philanthropic activities, scholarship scheme and donations to orphanages and government institutions were the popular Corporate Social Responsibility activities undertaken by RCBs. Cause-related marketing such as supporting social events, programme and campaigns, entertainment and culture were identified to be the corporate social responsibility activities to maximize performance. It was therefore recommended that RCBs should ensure that donations and philanthropic activities are done in a manner that would represent the company and improve its image or goodwill as well as ensuring consistent and proper implementation of CSR activities which are in line with policy.
Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Firm’s Performance, Rural and Community Banks
