AN ASSESSMENT OF THE PRACTICE OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ACCOUNTING BY FIRMS IN KENYA: A CASE STUDY OF SAFARICOM KENYA
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47941/jacc.15Keywords:
corporate social responsibility, social accounting, motivating factors, challengesAbstract
Purpose: This study was an assessment of the practice of corporate social responsibility accounting by firms in Kenya in the case of Safaricom Kenya.
Methodology: A case study design was appropriate for this study. The population used in this study entailed all the 1850 employees of safaricom. Judgmental sampling was used to select the respondents i.e. 24 in number, 8 respondents from the finance department, 8 respondents from the public relations department, 4 respondents from the sales department and 4 committee members of the Safaricom foundation. Primary data was collected by the use of a questionnaire and was the main data used in the research. The data collected was analyzed by use of inferential statistics. In particular, frequency tables, averages and percentages were used. The data was then presented using tables, graphs and charts.
Results: The study findings showed that to a large extent, environmental management of the production process and environmental policy were issues reported in the safaricom CSR report. In addition, climate protection and energy eco-efficiency were reported in the safaricom CSR reports to a low extent respectively. Furthermore, its practice of CSR was driven by a genuine concern for creating shareholders wealth (business case) as well as engagement and accountability. It was also observed that another motive for practicing CSR was PR based (striving to better than competitors). However, some of the challenges facing accounting for social responsibility (social accounting) were related to verifiability requirements, comparability requirements, training requirements, standardization requirements, and quantification requirements.
Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommended that Safaricom should maintain its trend for addressing corporate social responsibility issues and come up with measures that can be used to make social accounting in the firm to be less costly. The researcher recommended an investigative study to establish the level of usefulness of the CSR reports to various users. In addition, a correlation and a regression study explaining the relationship between CSR and firms financial performance would be in order.
Downloads
References
Ackerman, R. W., & Bauer, R. A. (1976). Corporate social responsiveness, Reston Publishing, Reston, VA.
Andriof, J. (2000). Mapping the research within corporate citizenship: Concepts, evidence, and implications, Working Paper.
Andriof, J., & McIntosh, M. (2001). Perspectives on corporate citizenship. Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield.
Arlow, P., & Gannon, M. J. (1982). Social responsiveness, corporate structure, and economic performance, Academy of Management Review 7(2), 235-241.
Armstrong, J. S., & Overton, T. S. (1977). Estimating non-response bias in mail services, Journal of Marketing Research, 14(3), 396-402.
Aupperle, K. E., Carroll, A. B., & Hatfield, J. D. (1985). An empirical examination of the relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability, Academy of Management Journal, 28(2), 446-463.
Beltz, F., Kestemont, M. P., & Strannegard, L. (1997). International Business Environmental Barometer, Cappelen Akademisk Forlag, Copenhagen.
Bhattacharya, C. B., & Sen, S. (2004). Doing better at doing good: When, why, and how consumers respond to corporate social initiatives, California Management Review, 47(1), 9-24.
Bowen, H. R. (1953). Social Responsibilities of the Businessman, Harper-Row, New York.
Carroll, A. B. (1979). A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate performance, Academy of Management Review 4(4), 497-505.
Chand, M. (2006). The relationship between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance: Industry type as a boundary condition, The Business Review, 5(1), 240-245.
Clarkson, M. B. E. (1995). A stakeholder framework for analysing and evaluating corporate social performance, Academy of Management Review, 20(1), 92-117.
Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2004). Business Ethics: A European Perspective, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Davidson, W. N., & Worrell, D. L. (1988). The impact of announcements of corporate illegalities on shareholder returns, Academy of Management Journal 31(1), 195-200.
Davidson, W. N., & Worrell, D. L. (1990). A comparison and test of the use of accounting and stock market data in relating corporate social responsibility and financial performance, Akron Business and Economic Review 21, 7-19.
Davis, K. (1973). The Case for and against business assumption of social responsibilities, Academy of Management Journal, 16(3), 312-22.
Dunphy, D., Griffiths, A., & Benn, S. (2003). Organizational change for corporate sustainability, Routledge, London.
Fombrun, C., & Shanley, M. (1990). What's in a name? Reputation building and corporate strategy, Academy of Management Journal, 33(2), 233-258.
Frederick, W. C. (1998). Creatures, corporations, communities, chaos, complexity: A naturological view of corporate social role, Business and Society, 37(4), 358-389.
Holmes, L., & Watts, R. (1999). Making good business sense. In The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Conches-Geneva.
Jensen, M. C. (2002). Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function, Business Ethics Quarterly, 12(2), 235-256.
Jones, T. M. (1980). Corporate social responsibility revisited, redefined, California Management Review, 22(3), 59-67.
Kotler, P., & Lee, N. (2005). Corporate social responsibility: Doing the most good for your company and your cause, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
