P.K. Hoeyi
Abstract
The idea that businesses owe a responsibility to not only their shareholders, but also to a broader group of stakeholders is often called “corporate social responsibility”. The concept has gained acceptance across the globe, despite its contentious nature some decades ago. However, there has been an over-concentration of research on the concept in the large business domain to the detriment of non-large businesses. Even so, the focus has largely been on jurisdictions outside of Africa. There does not appear to be much work done in respect of business social responsibility reasons and obstacles among non-large firms, much less in the African context. Given that firm size is a key determinant of business behaviour, there is the need for a differentiated view of social responsibility in the non-large business sector also. Therefore, using stakeholder theory, this study sought to understand whether there are differences in reasons for, and obstacle to small, medium, and micro enterprises’ social responsibility in South Africa and Ghana. After analysing cross-sectional survey data collected from 446 owners and/or managers, there was not much difference found in the ranking of primary reasons according to country, whereas significant differences were found in the order of severity of obstacles by country.