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Abukari, Abdul Jelil; Abdul-Hamid, Ibn Kailan

Article

Corporate social responsibility reporting in thetelecommunications sector in Ghana

International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility (JCSR)

Provided in Cooperation with:CBS International Business School, Cologne

Suggested Citation: Abukari, Abdul Jelil; Abdul-Hamid, Ibn Kailan (2018) : Corporate socialresponsibility reporting in the telecommunications sector in Ghana, International Journal ofCorporate Social Responsibility (JCSR), ISSN 2366-0074, Springer, Cham, Vol. 3, Iss. 2, pp.1-9,http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40991-017-0025-9

This Version is available at:http://hdl.handle.net/10419/217411

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE Open Access

Corporate social responsibility reporting inthe telecommunications sector in GhanaAbdul Jelil Abukari1 and Ibn Kailan Abdul-Hamid2*

Abstract

Many corporations today have come to the realization that there are enormous benefits to be derived from beingsocially responsible in the societies they operate. Today, the argument is no longer about being a good corporatecitizen on the part of businesses but the ability of businesses to communicate their social contributions to stakeholders.A number of mediums can be employed by businesses to report on their corporate social responsibility (CSR) tostakeholders: including annual reports; community reports; press releases among others. This study looked at CSRreporting in the telecommunications sector in Ghana, using websites as a disclosure medium. Drawing inspirationsfrom prior studies, this study looked at corporate social responsibility reporting (CSRR) in five thematic perspectives:environment; human resource; product and customer; community and ethical aspects. Findings from this studyindicate that the telecommunications companies in Ghana poorly articulate their CSR issues online. The communityinvolvement category received much attention in their reportage, which supports earlier studies that most organizationsare committed to corporate philanthropy. The findings also show that two telecommunications companies havededicated department solely for CSR (MTN Ghana and Vodafone Ghana), known as CSR Foundation with separate visionstatement, mission statement; objectives; aims as well as independent board different from the mother entities. The studymakes relevant contribution in the area of CSRR in the context of Ghana, judging from the fact that the concepts CSRand CSRR are relatively new and also adds literature to a fairly growing area of CSR communications via websites whichare fast becoming a medium of corporate communication for corporations in Ghana and beyond.

Keywords: CSR, CSR reporting, Telecommunications, Ghana

IntroductionOrganizations today, whether private or public areexpected to conduct their businesses in a legal, ethical andtransparent manner, raking in the needed profit, while atthe same time meeting the expectations of variousstakeholders. This is where the issue of corporate social re-sponsibility (CSR) comes into play. Issues of CSR continueto be in the front burner in many corporate board roomsof many business corporations. This view is endorsed by(Nielsen & Thomsen, 2007) when they opined that theneed for transparency and accountability from organiza-tions operating worldwide has pushed them to put CSRhigh on their agendas. CSR today remains an emergingconcept in many developing economies (Muller & Kolk,2008), of which Ghana is not an exception. According to aan international survey issued by the Price Water House

Coopers in the early part of 2002, reveals that nearly 70%of global chief executives believed that addressing CSRwas vital to their companies’ profitability (Simms, 2002).Notwithstanding the age-long debate about corporatesocial responsibility and the difficulty in arriving at aconsensual definition of the concept, CSR is gaining cur-rency in many business enterprises in Ghana today. Simi-larly, the Ghanaian government has proactively endorsedCSR friendly practices by firms operating in the country(Atuguba & Dowuona-Hammond, 2006). This is becauseorganizations by their nature have responsibilities assignedto them by law, shareholders, stakeholders and society atlarge (Carrol, 1979). Undoubtedly, corporatism todaylooks beyond the bottom line, in an attempt to placate itsstakeholders. CSR issues are now being factored into allaspects of business operations and explicit commitmentto CSR is made in the vision statement, mission statementand value statement in many business enterprises in theworld (Ofori & Hinson, 2007). It is increasingly becoming

* Correspondence: ibnkailan@gmail.com2Department of Marketing, University of Professional Studies, Accra, GhanaFull list of author information is available at the end of the article

International Journal ofCorporate Social Responsibility

© The Author(s). 2018 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, andreproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link tothe Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Abukari and Abdul-Hamid International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility (2018) 3:2 DOI 10.1186/s40991-017-0025-9

fashionable today for organization not only to be sociallyresponsible, but, also endeavor to report same. This viewis endorsed by (Epinosa and Porter, 2011), when theyargue that matters of sustainability reporting are increas-ingly assuming a global trend heading towards a paradigmshift in the ways businesses and organizations whetherpublic or private, profit-making or non-profit-makingoperate in society. Engaging in social responsibility andreporting such activities at a regular interval have beenrecognized as an essential device for organizations to-wards ensuring the long term continued existence andsurvival (Khan, 2010).A review of the social disclosure literature suggests that

reporting CSR issues have become a necessary facet ofbusinesses to demonstrate companies’ commitment to thewellbeing of society (Khan, 2010). A number of earlierresearches analyzing CSR information disclosure havetouched on a wide range of fundamental issues (See forexample: Mahmoud et al., 2017; Boateng & Abdul-Hamid,2017; Hinson et al., 2010; Sulemana, 2016; Khan, 2010;Gao, 2011; Abugre, 2011; Khan et al., 2009). It appears notcoincidental that issues of sustainability reporting is alsosuffering definitional quagmire similar to that of CSR.Consequently, it has been referred to variously as corpor-ate citizenship report; triple-bottom line (TBL) report;social and environmental accounting; annual social report;integrity report; sustainability development report amongothers. It is pertinent to add that there are variousmediums through which businesses can communicateCSR messages. Reasons for dwelling on corporate websitesas a disclosure medium is inspired by the assertion byZeghal & Ahmed (1990) that the use of annual reportsalone do not adequately represent information disclosureof a firm or industry as they tend to target only investorsand shareholders, which makes websites disclosure appro-priate and relevant.Additionally, the number of people using the internet

continues to soar (Arnone et al., 2011) making it anappropriate medium to disclose CSR information. Theobjective of this study therefore, is to look at howtelecommunications companies in Ghana disclose theirCSR on their corporate websites. This paper is struc-tured into six parts: the first part dealt with theintroduction; section two provides literature review;section three sheds light on the theoretical frameworkunderpinning the study; research methodology followsin section four; while section five discussed findings ofthe study. The paper is wrapped up with conclusionsand recommendations of the study.

Literature reviewAccording to Smith (2002: 42) CSR is the “integration ofbusiness operations and values whereby the interests of allstakeholders, including customer, employees, investors, and

the environment are reflected in the organization’s policiesand actions”. According to (Nielsen & Thomsen, 2007) theemergence of non-financial reporting or CSR reporting canbe seen as an attempt to increase transparency with respectto corporate dealings concerning social and environmentalissues. To accentuate this, a number of reporting guidelineshave been developed to which corporations are expectedto report on to bring about fairness, transparency andtruthfulness (Rrynolds and Yuthas, 2008), such as globalreporting initiatives (GRI), SA (Social Accountability,International Labor Standards) or the triple bottom line.The corporate social reporting literature has witnessedtremendous growth over the last three decades (Gray,2001). However, notwithstanding the extensive research inthe area of CSR reporting, there is no consensus on theexact definition of CSR reporting (Gray, 2000).According to Abugre & Nyuur (2015: 173) “Communi-

cating CSR is a means of ensuring that these firms are intouch with their stakeholders to be responsible for theirsocial and environmental impacts”. The increasing desireby companies to engage in CSR is largely attributed tothe myriad of benefits that companies stand to gainwhen perceived by society as being social responsible(Du et al., 2010). According to Rizk et al., 2008: 306)corporate social responsibility reporting is “the processof communicating the social and environmental effectsof organizations’ economic actions to particular interestgroups within society and to society at large. As such, itinvolves extending the accountability of organizations(particularly) companies; beyond the traditional role ofproviding a financial account to the owners of capital, inparticular to shareholders. Such an extension is predi-cated upon the assumption that companies do havewider responsibility than simply to make money for theirshareholders”. Fonseca et al. (2011) see sustainabilityreporting as the process of accessing and making peri-odic public disclosures relating to organization’s social,environment, economic, safety and health performance.Hinson et al., (2010) discussed how banks in Ghanadisclose their CSR on their websites. The study foundthat adb (agricultural development bank) which has wonmost CSR awards in Ghana had the poorest communica-tion of CSR on its websites.The study further revealed that unlisted banks commu-

nicated more of their CSR than listed banks, contrary tothe finding of (Dineshwar, 2013) study which revealed thatlisted banks in Mauritius communicated more of theirCSR activities than unlisted banks. Hinson (2011a) dis-cussed how banks split along CSR award-winning versusnon CSR award-winning banks communicate their CSRonline. The study concludes that banks with the mostawards as far as CSR was concerned had the poorest CSRcommunication online. Sulemana (2016) analyzed CSRreporting by telecommunications companies across Africa

Abukari and Abdul-Hamid International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility (2018) 3:2 Page 2 of 9

and found that telecommunications companies on thecontinent are committed to CSR and reporting same toplacate their stakeholders. Khan et al., 2009examined CSRdisclosures by 20 commercial banks in Bangladesh. Thestudy showed that commercial banks in Bangladesh reporton a wide range of themes, with much emphasis onhuman resource disclosure, contrary to the findings of(Hinson et al., 2010) study in Ghana which saw commer-cial banks putting much emphasis on corporate philan-thropy. Gao (2011) analyzed 81 listed companies’ CSRR inChina and found that state owned enterprises (SOEs) havethe higher propensity of addressing social issues than non-state owned enterprises. The study further suggests that in-dustrial firms are more willing to address the interests ofstakeholders than service firms. Abugre & Nyuur (2015)conclude that Ghanaians companies are committed toCSR and rely on a wide range of channels to make theirCSR contributions known to the public, however, the com-panies dwell so much on corporate philanthropy as evi-dence of their CSR engagements. Nielsen & Thomsen(2007) analyzed CSR reporting by six Danish companiesand conclude that their CSR reportage are very differentwith respect to topics on the one hand and dimensionsand discourses expressed in terms of perspectives, stake-holder priorities, contextual information and ambitionlevels on the other hand. Khan (2010) looked at the poten-tial impact of corporate governance (CG) issues on CSRreporting among private commercial banks in Bangladeshand the results demonstrate that although voluntary, CSRreporting is rather modest, but, the various themes re-ported are impressive, with corporate philanthropy onceagain leading the pack.Scholarship in the area of CSR reporting has largely

been a European affair (see Birth et al., 2008; Kotonen,2009; Morsing et al., 2008; Adams & McNicholas, 2007;Capriotti & Moreno, 2007). However, there is fairly agrowing literature in the context of Ghana on CSRreporting. For example, (Hinson et al., 2010; Hinson,2011a; Hinson, 2011b) did look at CSR disclosures inthe banking sector in four thematic areas: human re-source; environment; product and customer; and com-munity involvement. But, these studies did not look atissues of ethical disclosure, which borders on good cor-porate governance, which this study seeks to do, by in-corporating issues of corporate governance into Hinsonet al., (2010) study, which is very critical in sustainabilitydevelopment. This is because the underlying theme ofthe meaning of the concept CSR is accountability andresponsibility (Dineshwar, 2013). After all, it would be ofno use if a business communicates its CSR activities inthe areas of human resource; environment; product andcustomer; and community involvement to its stake-holders and their operations are replete with corruptionand unethical business conduct. Furthermore,

(Sulemana, 2016) on the other hand, looked at CSRcommunication using African telecommunications com-panies. Unfortunately, his data did not capture any tele-communications company from Ghana. This studyintends to build on the work of (Sulemana, 2016) by nar-rowing on how telecommunications companies inGhana disclose their CSR on their websites in five the-matic areas: human resource; environment; product andcustomer; community involvement; and ethics, drawinginspirations from earlier studies by (Dineshwar, 2013;Hinson et al., 2010 & Sulemana, 2016). This will add tothe fairly growing literature in the area of CSR reportingin the Ghanaian context.

Research frameworkA number of earlier studies were of great inspiration forthis framework, notably (Hinson et al., 2010; Dineshwar,2013). The study looked at CSR reportage in five thematicareas: human resource; environment; product and cus-tomer; community involvement; and ethical disclosure.The human resource disclosure include: employee healthand safety; employee training; and employee morale. Theenvironmental disclosure include: environmental policy/company concern for the environment; environmentalmanagement system; conservation of energy in the con-duct of business; conservation of natural resources and re-cycling/ E-waste management. Product and customerdisclosure touch on: product quality; customer com-plaints/ satisfaction; provision for physically challenged,aged or difficult-to-reach customer. Community involve-ment comprises: support for education; support for health;youth entrepreneurship; employee volunteerism; andsports sponsorship. The ethical disclosure refers to: integ-rity; ethical/ professional conduct; transparency; andequality and diversity. The figure below illustrates the the-oretical framework for the study. Fig. 1As alluded earlier, firms report on their CSR activities in

attempt to elicit legitimacy from the society. Reporting onCSR engagement in the areas of human resource; environ-ment; product and customer; community involvement andethical issues are all geared towards enhancing their imageand invariably gaining legitimacy from the areas they oper-ate. The figure above illustrates the attempt by firms to gainlegitimacy by reporting on their CSR with the view to elicit-ing legitimacy from the society they operate. It is dividedinto three sections: CSR reporting; what is communicatedand motive for communicating CSR. CSR reporting heremeans communicating on websites of telecommunicationscompanies. Here, they communicate issues like humanresource; environment; product and customer; communityinvolvement and ethical disclosure. The third section talksabout the motive of communicating CSR. This is doneostensibly to earn legitimacy from the areas they operate.

Abukari and Abdul-Hamid International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility (2018) 3:2 Page 3 of 9

Theoretical explanation for CSR reportingIn spite of the widespread academic and business intereston the issue of CSR reporting, a comprehensive theoreticalframework for explaining the underlining determinants ofcorporate social and environmental disclosure is stillelusive (Reverte, 2008). Consequently, varied theories havebeen used to elucidate CSR reporting. Prior studies insocial disclosure literature have used a single theory or acombination of theories to explain CSR reporting. Forexample, legitimacy and stakeholder theories by (Hinson etal., 2010; Dineshwar, 2013; Golob & Bartlett, 2006); legit-imacy theory and political cost theories (Ghazale, 2007);institutional theory (Amran & Susela, 2008; Ali andRizwan, 2013) and agenda-setting theory (Pollach, 2013).This study used the legitimacy theory as theoretical under-pinning. The legitimacy theory provides significant insightsinto how CSR disclosure is done by firms operating in soci-ety. Evidence exists in corporate social disclosure literaturethat corporations engage in voluntary disclosure in theirannual reports as a means to manage legitimacy(Campbell, 2000). “Businesses under the legitimacy theorytherefore, disclose their CSR activities to show a sociallyresponsible image, so as to legitimate their behaviors totheir stakeholders” (Hinson et al., 2010: 500). Therefore, inan attempt to legitimize their existence in society, firmsdisclose their CSR activities to look good based on the

expectations of society. In this regard, only firms that con-duct their actions within the dictates of society will receivelegitimacy in society. Once reporting on social causeselicits legitimacy, firms will continue to report on theirCSR as that is the surest way to ensure their continualexistence, profitability and good image. The purpose oflegitimacy theory is to align the company’s practices withthe expectations of society as a whole.

Research methodologyThe corporate websites of the five telecommunicationscompanies in Ghana were visited to identify the dataneeded to be condensed into categories or themes forinterpretation and subsequent analysis. The data belowsummarizes how the various CSR themes were operation-alized on the websites of the five telecommunicationscompanies in Ghana. Table 1

Study contextAccording to the national communications authority(NCA), the regulator of the telecommunications sectorof Ghana, subscription to mobile telephony is increasingtremendously. It is undoubtedly, the fastest growing sec-tor in the service sub sector of Ghana. This is largelybrought about as a result of deregulation of the telecom-munications sector. This view is corroborated by

Fig. 1 CSR Reporting and Legitimacy Nexus

Abukari and Abdul-Hamid International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility (2018) 3:2 Page 4 of 9

Table 1 Operationalization of CSR Themes on Corporate Websites of the Sampled Companies

CSR Themes Statements or items connoting CSR on websites

Human resource disclosure

1.Employee health & safety Protecting employees against work hazards

2. Employee training Training, refresher training and othereducational opportunities

3.Employee morale Fringe, instant non-monetary benefits aimedat incentivizing employees to concentrate onthe job, also include annual monetary incentives.

Environmental disclosure

1.company concern for theenvironment

Conducting business while maintaining theintegrity of the environment

2.Environmental audit Operating with an ISO certification or allowingthird party audit

3.Conservation of energy in theconduct of business

Using renewable alternative sources of energyin business operations

4.Conservation of natural resources Conserving water, protecting flora & fauna

5.Recycling /E-waste management Re-use, recycle paper, recycling electronics waste& other materials used in production

Product & customer disclosure

1.product quality Best offers from the company in the form ofproducts and services

2.customer complaints/ satisfaction Dealing with customers issues, complaints, incomfortable, friendly and congenial mannerwithout hassle, after sale service

3.Provision for physically challenged/aged/ difficult-to- Reach customers

Taylor-made products for people withimpairment, aged, and those in remoteplaces

Community involvement

1.support for education Commitment to promote education. Assistancein the areas of class room infrastructure, textbooks, computer donations, teaching &learning materials, building capacity of teachers,schools internet connectivity & other educationalscholarships.

2.support for health Assistance in health infrastructure, refurbishment,donating hospital equipment, training for healthprofessional

3.Youth entrepreneurship Assistance aimed at training the youth to beentrepreneurial to create their own jobs andbe self-reliant.

4.Employee volunteerism Company employees getting out of their comfortzone and doing community work. Contributingcash or kind to the community

5.Sports sponsorship Providing assistance to sporting activities in theareas of football, volley ball athletics, rugby,swimming, supporting national teams.

Ethical disclosure

1.Ethical/professional conduct Allowing sound, good moral judgment in theconduct of business.

2.Transparency The extent to which corporate actions are observedby outsiders. How corporate actions and decisionsare opened to employees, stakeholders, shareholdersand the general public.

3.Integrety Be honest & upright in corporate dealings.

4.equality & diversity Treating people fairly and equitably without prejudiceand allowing cultural differences to fester.

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(Frempong & Atubra, 2001) when they assert that evidenceexists to suggest that the surge in the telecommunicationssector in Africa is attributable to the deregulation of thesector and its attendants investment in the telecommunica-tions sector. Furthermore, (Mahmoud & Hinson, 2012)argue that as a result of sweeping reforms in the sector inGhana in the mid-1990s, culminating in deregulation,which brought in its wake efficiency and competition. De-regulation has brought about competition in the telecom-munications sector and open the way for privateparticipation into the sector and subsequent reduction inprices of telephone services in the country. Today, as a re-sult of deregulation, there are five telecommunicationscompanies operating in the country according the stateregulator, as opposed to one during the regulated phase.These are MTN Ghana, Vodafone Ghana, Tigo, Airtel andGlo Ghana (www.nca.org.gh). These companies have con-tributed a lot by way of social interventions, especially inthe areas of education, health and economic empowerment.Some of them have even won CSR awards at the Ghanaclub 100 awards. According to Hinson & Kodua (2012:336),“the Ghana club 100 awards, award corporate excel-lence in Ghana’s business environment and is perceived tobe one of the most objective indicators of business per-formance in Ghana”. Therefore, it sounds plausible to in-vestigate how these companies communicate their CSR tostakeholders, especially on their websites. Undoubtedly, theability of corporations to communicate to their stake-holders, whether corporate or individuals via their corpor-ate websites has been made possible as a result of theavailability of telecommunications infrastructure, madepossible by telecommunications companies.

Qualitative content analysisThe study employed qualitative content analysis to inter-pret the themes contained on the websites of the five tele-communications companies in Ghana. Qualitative contentanalysis involves a process designed to condense raw datainto categories or themes based on valid inferences andinterpretation. According to Krippendorff (1989: 243) con-tent analysis is defined as a “research technique for mak-ing replicable and valid inferences from data to theircontext”. This study specifically used summative contentanalysis espoused by Hsieh & Shannon (2005). This tech-nique involved the identification and quantification of par-ticular word in a context with the view to understandingthe underlining theme. Earlier studies which employedsimilar methodology in their studies include (Sulemana,2016; Hinson et al., 2010; Hinson, 2011a; Hinson, 2011b).Since this study is interested in how much of their CSR iscommunicated, this approach is appropriate for this study.Qualitative content analysis focuses on characteristics oflanguage as communication, with attention to content orcontextual meaning of text (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). The

web sites of the five telecommunications companies werenavigated to locate links to CSR for quantification in linewith the summative approach, the methodology employedfor this study. Links that made it possible to locate CSRon these websites include CSR, CSR Foundation, about usand sponsorship. To measure the level of CSR by the fivetelecommunications companies in Ghana, the websites ofthese companies were visited in March, 2017 and revisitedin September, 2017 to look for contents of CSR and itsconnotations. This technique entails grouping the infor-mation disclosed into categories or themes which captureaspects of CSR to be measured (Hinson et al., 2010;Branco & Rodriguese, 2006). In the summation approach,a scoring system similar to the one used by (Sulemana,2016; Hinson et al., 2010; Hinson, 2011a; Hinson, 2011b)was employed, allocating a point each for all the categoriestalked about earlier. For example, if a telecommunicationcompany builds a school, it will score a point under com-munity involvement category, which has 5 items. This isrepeated for all other items in this category to find thetotal CSR disclosure for the community involvementcategory. This scoring system is replicated for all othercategories: thus environmental disclosure 5 items; productand customer 3 items; human resource 3 items and ethicaldisclosure 4 items. In all, a total of 20 CSR items areexpected to be communicated by the five telecommunica-tions companies in Ghana. Based on the disclosure statusof each of the telecommunications companies, interpret-ation and analyses as well comparison were then made.The study employed the services of coders to assist inclassifying the recorded data on the websites into categor-ies. Two student coders from Tamale Technical Universitywere trained to assist in this study. It took 5 weeks for thecoders to deal with the five telecommunications compan-ies, with each company allotted 1 week to analyze thewebsite of these companies. To bring about consistencyand validity in the coding process, the two coders togetherwith the authors met on the campus of Tamale TechnicalUniversity to discuss the results and to build consensus asto what to quantify and what not to quantify. This isbecause inter-coder agreement is very critical in thismethodology. This is in consistent with the assertion by(Lincoln & Guba, 1985) that credibility, transferability,dependability and conformability will go a long way topromote trustworthiness in the validation process.Krippendoff (1989) however, note that findings of thiskind of methodology cannot be generalized. The tablebelow gives the online presence of the five telecommuni-cations companies in Ghana.

Research findingsThe study reveals not a very impressive CSR disclosureby the five telecommunications companies in Ghana.As alluded elsewhere under the research framework,

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the five telecommunications companies were supposedto disclose their CSR contributions in five thematicareas: environment, human resource, product and cus-tomer, community involvement and ethical disclosure.In all, these companies were expected to disclose a totalof 20 items comprising environment, 5; humanresource, 3; product and customer, 3; community in-volvement, 5 and ethical disclosure, 4. From Table 2, itcan be observed that these five companies reported inpercentage terms 20% for MTN, 30% for Vodafone,25% for Airtel, 20% for Tigo and 15% for Glo. Surpris-ingly, MTN Ghana has won the CSR Company of theyear on two occasions in 2015 and 2016, while Airtelhas even won a global CSR award in 2016. These num-bers are not impressive to talk about as far as CSR dis-closures are concerned. For individual thematicdisclosures, the human resource theme was abysmallyreported with none reporting on the three constructsthat measure the human resource category. The envir-onmental disclosure was also poorly reported, with onlyone company (Vodafone) reporting on the company

concern for the environment. Perhaps, this could be areflection of the assertion that there is no known haz-ardous impact, as yet of the operations of telecommu-nications companies to the environment. This wasfollowed by the ethical category, with MTN reportingon only integrity, Vodafone on ethical or professionalconduct and transparency, Airtel on only transparency,while Tigo and Glo reported on none in the ethical dis-closure. The poor reportage on human resource, ethicaldisclosure and the environmental issues is consistentwith the observation by (Visser et al., 2010) that ethicaland responsible behavior, obeying the law and workplace issues receive low priority in CSR discussions.Lastly, the five telecommunications companies reportedsomehow better on the community involvement themethan all the other categories. Majority of the companiesin this study reported on this theme, with none failingto report on anything as seen with the human resourcecategory. Specifically, support for education and healthwere widely reported, with only Glo Ghana failing toreport these two. The study also reveals that two of the

Table 2 CSR Reporting On Websites by the Selected Telecommunications Companies

CSR Themes MTNGhana

VodafoneGhana

AirtelGhana

TigoGhana

GloGhana

Environmentaldisclosure

1.Company concern for the environment ● ○ ● ● ●

2.Environmental audit ● ● ● ● ●

3. Conservation of energy in the conductof business.

● ● ● ● ●

4.Consrvation of natural resources ● ● ● ● ●

5.Recycling/ e-waste management ● ● ● ● ●

Human resourcedisclosure

1.Employee health and safety ● ● ● ● ●

2. Employee morale ● ● ● ● ●

3. Employee training ● ● ● ● ●

Product & Customerdisclosure

1.Product quality ○ ○ ○ ○ ●

2.Customer complaints/ satisfaction ● ● ● ● ○

3. provision for physically challengedand difficult-to-reach customers

● ● ● ● ●

Community involvementdisclosure

1.Support for education ○ ○ ○ ○ ●

2. Support for health ○ ○ ○ ○ ●

3. youth entrepreneurship ● ● ● ○ ○

4. Employee volunteerism ● ● ● ●

5. Sports sponsorship ● ● ○ ● ○

Ethical disclosure 1.Integrety ○ ● ● ● ●

2. Ethical/professional conduct ● ○ ● ● ●

3.Transparency ● ○ ○ ● ●

4. Equality & Diversity ● ● ● ● ●

Grand total 04 06 05 04 03

Percentages (%) 20 30 25 20 15

● CSR Not Disclosed○ CSR Disclosed

Abukari and Abdul-Hamid International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility (2018) 3:2 Page 7 of 9

telecommunications companies have departmentssolely responsible for CSR. These are MTN Ghana andVodafone Ghana.

Conclusions and recommendationsFrom the forgoing discussions, it possible to argue thatengaging in CSR is one thing and proactively communi-cating same online is another. In this regard, telecommu-nications companies must endeavor to exist in both“brick-and-mortar” format as well as online. The fact thatsome of these companies have won CSR awards and havenot proactively communicated same could be reflection ofwhat Hinson et al., 2010described as poor synchronizationof their integrated marketing communication strategy off-line and online. Even though, these companies have notwell articulated their CSR issues online, they have notdone badly as far as the community involvement theme isconcerned, particularly with support for education andsupport for health. This is consistent with the reason putforward by (Zeghal & Ahmed, 1990), that because com-pany’s websites are targeting many stakeholders includingconsumers, it is only reasonably plausible that they givemuch attention to community involvement than any othercategory. This has the potential of giving the telecommu-nications companies’ legitimacy in the eyes of the public.The dominant reportage on education and health by thesetelecommunications companies is only a reflection of thepremium these companies place on education and health.This observation is consistent with the findings of Hinsonand Kodua, 2012who in their study reported that issues ofeducation and health are important. Furthermore, Hinsonet al., 2010assert that the concentration on education andhealth could be an apparent reflection of what stake-holders perceive as corporate social responsibility. As thiscould be described as one of the ways of eliciting legitim-acy from stakeholders. With the view to coordinating theirsocial investment they embark on, the study revealed thattwo of these telecommunications companies, MTN Ghanaand Vodafone Ghana have “Foundations” to promote theirCSR contributions in the areas they operate. This is inconcert with the studies of (Tang & Li, 2009; Hinson andKodua, 2012; Dashwood & Pupulampu, 2010) who in theirrespective studies found that companies established“Foundations” to coordinate their social investment. Thestudy observed that these Foundations have separate vi-sion statement, mission statement; objectives; aims as wellas independent board different from the mother entity.This is to give bite to the intention of these two companiesto prosecute their social investment competently.The fact that there are several mediums through which

CSR can be communicated including: websites, environ-mental reports independent of annual report, annual re-ports, community reports and press releases. The restsare extra supporting documents for annual reports,

advertisement, video tapes, published articles and book-lets regarding corporate environmental activities. Thismeans that telecommunications companies in Ghanacan choose to report on their CSR in any of thesemediums. However, judging from the enormous benefitsassociated with CSR communication via websites (seeWanderly et al., 2008; Branco & Rodrigues, 2006;Geerings and Hassink, 2003), it is incumbent that com-panies try to report their social contributions viawebsites. Failure to use the appropriate communicationschannels of one’s business activities could result in dis-belief, doubt and uncertainty on the part of stakeholders(Abugre, 2011). Again, it also useful that companiesmust try to exist in both “brick-and-mortar” format aswell as in “click-and-mortar format” (Singh, 2004), whichis increasingly becoming cheaper with the advent aplethora of digital communications tools. Visibility iscritically important in the market place and one of thesurest way which companies can access visibility cheaply,is to report on their CSR via websites, which will go along way to promote legitimacy in the eyes of stake-holders. This study only looked at CSR communicationson the websites of these telecommunications companiesand not any other CSR disclosure medium in March andSeptember, 2017 and any CSR initiative beyond thismonth is not covered. This study looked at CSR report-ing in telecommunications sector in Ghana via websites,next research may look at triangulating these data bytalking to CSR foundation managers. Future researchmight also consider comparing CSR in annual reportsand CSR via corporate websites.

Authors' contributionsAAJ wrote the methodology, collected data and anlysed the data for use,whiles IKAH wrote theintroduction, literature review and conclusions. Allauthors read and approved the final manuscript.

Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s NoteSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims inpublished maps and institutional affiliations.

Author details1Department of Marketing, Tamale Technical University, Tamale, Ghana.2Department of Marketing, University of Professional Studies, Accra, Ghana.

Received: 27 June 2017 Accepted: 22 December 2017

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