Corporate Social Responsibility among Small and Medium Enterprises in Ghana

Abstract

The main objective of this research was to explore the understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and to find out among others, the CSR activities that they undertook, as well as how they communicated those activities. In-depth interviews were carried out with four managers of four SMEs who were members of the Association of Ghana Industries. The study was carried out within the framework of the stakeholder theory and the two-way symmetrical model of communication. The findings of this research indicated that, CSR was viewed by the participant SMEs to be mainly an organization‟s philanthropic or benevolent responsibility towards its various stakeholders. The findings also showed that emphasis was not placed on CSR communication by the SMEs. It was as well evident that, the use of mass media, such as television and radio by the SMEs to communicate their CSR activities was seldom. Of the four SMEs studied, only one had ever employed a mass medium. The study further found that barriers which hindered the SMEs from undertaking CSR activities included low profits, inadequate funds and high cost of production