Corporate social responsibility and reputation: some empirical perspectives

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm's reputation in terms of product and service quality, management performance and attractiveness as well as reputation on overall performance from a developing country's environment. Design/methodology/approach - The partial lest squares structural equation modeling was used to study the relationship between CSR and firm's reputation as well as the overall organizational performance using a survey of informants from Ghana. Findings - Using data from firms in Ghana, the study demonstrates that CSR initiative by firms will have a positive relationship with firm's reputation in terms of product and service quality, management performance and attractiveness as well as overall performance. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that enhanced reputation by firms through social responsibility initiatives will lead to firms' overall performance from the Ghanaian business environment. Research limitations/implications - The main limitation of this work is the source of the data originating from only executives from Ghana where managers are sometimes skeptical giving out such information; this might have some influence on the results. In addition, there could be potential endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity issues. It is therefore recommended that future studies should consider these issues to check as to whether the same results could be achieved. Specifically, results indicate that when organizations invest in CSR initiatives, they are likely to achieve product quality, improved management performance and an attractiveness as well as overall performance. Practical implications - The research shows how CSR initiatives can enhance firm's reputation and overall performance of a firm. Originality/value - The work illustrates and provides some insights and builds on the literature in the area CSR and reputation from a developing country's environment.