A dissertation submitted in partial/fulfillment of the requirements for award of the degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA) of Mzumbe University
Debates continue to temper between scholars who contend that corporate social responsibility has benefits on the firm and those who argue that it has no any benefits on the firm. Therefore, this report aims at examining the benefits that firms receive from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives which influences the performance of the firms by taking Cooperate Rural Development Bank (CRDB bank in Morogoro Tanzania as a case. The research design was a case study in nature. Data was collected from 100 people including employees and customers within the CRDB Bank in Morogoro Municipal. The report employed questionnaires, interviews and documentary reviews as the main tools for data collection. Various data analysis techniques such as frequency analysis, percentages, figures and descriptive analysis were used to analyse the data.
Grounded on the replies and analysis, the results show that the corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an invisible hand that is used by the firms to create and maximise the shareholders’ wealth. The findings show that company engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives reaps innumerable benefits including improving organisation image and identity, increasing competitive advantage and enhancing employees’ morale. Furthermore, the findings reveal that the practice of CSR enhances customer trust and loyalty, improves investors’ trust and open new market opportunities. Interestingly, the findings show that corporate social responsibilities do influence the performance of the firm. The constraints that limit the CSR program were found to be inadequate budget, lack of community awareness, globalisation, overwhelming poverty and rapid population growth. From the results it was concluded that CRDB Bank received many benefits from CSR initiatives but the stakeholders were not aware with those benefits because there were no disclosure reports to the stakeholders. Hence this report recommends for the bank and other firms engaging in CSR to disclose their CSR reports to the stakeholders; as well as to embed it in corporate culture