Leveraging CSR to achieve MDGs: a case study of Ghana

Bussa, Carla (2012) Leveraging CSR to achieve MDGs: a case study of Ghana. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The Millennium Development Goals possibly embody the most powerful challenge the world was ever confronted with in order to achieve sustainable global development. The potential role that the private sector can play in it is growingly been emphasised and the CSR/Development debate in relation to developing countries is rising to prominence.

A new political notion of the firm is emerging that calls on corporations to actively participate in the definition of the global agenda. Yet, attention needs to be devoted to the fact that a South-centred CSR approach is needed to foster private sector’s contribution to developing countries. Accordingly, institutional factors have to be considered for the advancement of a more integrative CSR theory and practice that could contribute to societal development.

This dissertation presents the results of an empirical case-study assessing whether the nature of CSR understanding and practices in Ghana is likely to deliver true sustainable development therefore advancing the Millennium Development Goals. Through web content analysis, the CSR programmes of 32 national and international companies that operate in Ghana are examined. The results show that Ghanaian CSR is simultaneously influenced by global and local institutional pressures, as the result of the different regulatory, normative and, especially, cultural-cognitive pressures to which both national and international companies are exposed. The role played by mimetic processes appears to be the most salient especially for domestic companies.

The study discusses the implications of these findings for the attainment of sustainable development, indicating that CSR as it is currently practised in Ghana is unlikely to really contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Accordingly, the need to develop a CSR model more attuned to the local framework and the necessity to strengthen national institutional drivers of CSR are suggested.

Item Type: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Depositing User: EP, Services
Date Deposited: 01 Aug 2014 14:22
Last Modified: 23 Jan 2018 16:13
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/25437

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