IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijocsr/v6y2021i1d10.1186_s40991-021-00064-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): motivations and challenges of a Multinational Enterprise (MNE) subsidiary’s engagement with host communities in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Lyon Salia Awuah

    (Sunyani Technical University)

  • Kwame Oduro Amoako

    (Sunyani Technical University)

  • Stephen Yeboah

    (Sunyani Technical University)

  • Emmanuel Opoku Marfo

    (University of Energy and Natural Resources)

  • Peter Ansu-Mensah

    (Sunyani Technical University)

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the motivations and challenges of engaging host communities in CSR practices within the context of Newmont Ahafo Mines (NAM), a subsidiary of a Multinational Mining Enterprise (MNE) operating in Ghana’s mining sector. This paper draws insights from stakeholder theory and interviews conducted with internal stakeholders (management and employees) and stakeholders in host communities (traditional rulers and community members). The findings indicate that effective decision-making, gaining legitimacy, cost savings, management of risks, and accountability are some of the perceived motivations of NAM’s stakeholder engagement in CSR. Nonetheless, the most critical challenges to NAM in improving stakeholder engagement in CSR practices are the lack of community members’ support in CSR projects, communities’ high expectations of NAM on development projects and over-dependency on NAM on the part of host communities. Therefore, it is reasonable for MNEs in emerging economies to attune engagement practices to the host community’s context. This will enable CSR practices and policies to fully exploit the latent benefits of CSR in the mining sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Lyon Salia Awuah & Kwame Oduro Amoako & Stephen Yeboah & Emmanuel Opoku Marfo & Peter Ansu-Mensah, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): motivations and challenges of a Multinational Enterprise (MNE) subsidiary’s engagement with host communities in Ghana," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ijocsr:v:6:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s40991-021-00064-8
    DOI: 10.1186/s40991-021-00064-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s40991-021-00064-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s40991-021-00064-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Owen, John R. & Kemp, Deanna, 2013. "Social licence and mining: A critical perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 29-35.
    2. Muzammal Khan & Abeer Hassan & Christian Harrison & Heather Tarbert, 2020. "CSR reporting: a review of research and agenda for future research," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 43(11), pages 1395-1419, July.
    3. Oasis Kodila-Tedika & Simplice A. Asongu & Julio Mukendi Kayembe, 2016. "Middle Class in Africa: Determinants and Consequences," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 527-549, October.
    4. Michelle Greenwood, 2007. "Stakeholder Engagement: Beyond the Myth of Corporate Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 74(4), pages 315-327, September.
    5. Bice, Sara & Brueckner, Martin & Pforr, Christof, 2017. "Putting social license to operate on the map: A social, actuarial and political risk and licensing model (SAP Model)," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 46-55.
    6. Liu, Steven Y.H. & Napier, Elizabeth & Runfola, Andrea & Cavusgil, S. Tamer, 2020. "MNE-NGO partnerships for sustainability and social responsibility in the global fast-fashion industry: A loose-coupling perspective," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(5).
    7. Alexander Rodriguez‐Melo & S. Afshin Mansouri, 2011. "Stakeholder Engagement: Defining Strategic Advantage for Sustainable Construction," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(8), pages 539-552, December.
    8. Mark Lorenzen & Ram Mudambi & Andreas Schotter, 0. "International connectedness and local disconnectedness: MNE strategy, city-regions and disruption," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 0, pages 1-24.
    9. Elaine Lawson & Gloria Bentil, 2014. "Shifting sands: changes in community perceptions of mining in Ghana," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 217-238, February.
    10. Richard Kwasi Boso & Sam K. Afrane & Daniel K. B. Inkoom, 2017. "Motivations for providing CSR-mediated initiatives in mining communities of Ghana: a multiple-case study," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-15, December.
    11. Peter Rodriguez & Donald S Siegel & Amy Hillman & Lorraine Eden, 2006. "Three lenses on the multinational enterprise: politics, corruption, and corporate social responsibility," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 37(6), pages 733-746, November.
    12. Evans Asante Boadi & Zheng He & Josephine Bosompem & Joy Say & Eric Kofi Boadi, 2019. "Let the Talk Count: Attributes of Stakeholder Engagement, Trust, Perceive Environmental Protection and CSR," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440198, January.
    13. Mark Lorenzen & Ram Mudambi & Andreas Schotter, 2020. "International connectedness and local disconnectedness: MNE strategy, city-regions and disruption," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(8), pages 1199-1222, October.
    14. James B. Abugre & Alex Anlesinya, 2019. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Value of Multinational Companies: Lessons from a Sub-Saharan African Environment," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 435-454, October.
    15. Freeman, R. Edward, 1994. "The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions1," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 409-421, October.
    16. Martin Brueckner & Sara Bice & Christof Pforr, 2018. "Risky Business? On the Interplay Between Social, Actuarial and Political Risks and Licences," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, in: Hualiang Lu & René Schmidpeter & Nicholas Capaldi & Liangrong Zu (ed.), Building New Bridges Between Business and Society, pages 25-49, Springer.
    17. Reimann, Felix & Ehrgott, Matthias & Kaufmann, Lutz & Carter, Craig R., 2012. "Local stakeholders and local legitimacy: MNEs' social strategies in emerging economies," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 1-17.
    18. Prno, Jason, 2013. "An analysis of factors leading to the establishment of a social licence to operate in the mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 577-590.
    19. Olga Hawn & Aaron K. Chatterji & Will Mitchell, 2018. "Do investors actually value sustainability? New evidence from investor reactions to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI)," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 949-976, April.
    20. R. Edward Freeman & Andrew C. Wicks & Bidhan Parmar, 2004. "Stakeholder Theory and “The Corporate Objective Revisited”," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 15(3), pages 364-369, June.
    21. Moffat, Kieren & Zhang, Airong, 2014. "The paths to social licence to operate: An integrative model explaining community acceptance of mining," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 61-70.
    22. A. Lindgreen & V. Swaen & W. Johnston, 2009. "Corporate social responsibility : an empirical investigation of U.S. organizations," Post-Print hal-00575825, HAL.
    23. Renata Konadu & Samuel Owusu‐Agyei & Theophilus A. Lartey & Albert Danso & Samuel Adomako & Joseph Amankwah‐Amoah, 2020. "CEOs' reputation, quality management and environmental innovation: The roles of stakeholder pressure and resource commitment," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2310-2323, September.
    24. Adam Lindgreen & Valérie Swaen & Wesley Johnston, 2009. "Corporate Social Responsibility: An Empirical Investigation of U.S. Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(2), pages 303-323, April.
    25. Andrews, Nathan, 2016. "Challenges of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in domestic settings: An exploration of mining regulation vis-à-vis CSR in Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 9-17.
    26. Deanna Kemp, 2010. "Community relations in the global mining industry: exploring the internal dimensions of externally orientated work," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(1), pages 1-14, January.
    27. Peter Ansu-Mensah & Emmanuel Opoku Marfo & Lyon Salia Awuah & Kwame Oduro Amoako, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility and stakeholder engagement in Ghana’s mining sector: a case study of Newmont Ahafo mines," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-22, December.
    28. Geert Demuijnck & Björn Fasterling, 2016. "The Social License to Operate," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(4), pages 675-685, July.
    29. Rafael Mattos Deus & Bruno Michel Roman Pais Seles & Karina Rabelo Ogasawara Vieira & Rosane Aparecida Gomes Battistelle, 2019. "Organisational Challenges to Corporate Social Responsibility," CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance, in: Samuel O. Idowu & Catalina Sitnikov & Lars Moratis (ed.), ISO 26000 - A Standardized View on Corporate Social Responsibility, pages 207-219, Springer.
    30. Dyann Ross, 2017. "A research-informed model for corporate social responsibility: towards accountability to impacted stakeholders," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-11, December.
    31. Gupta, Shivam & Chen, Haozhe & Hazen, Benjamin T. & Kaur, Sarabjot & Santibañez Gonzalez, Ernesto D.R., 2019. "Circular economy and big data analytics: A stakeholder perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 466-474.
    32. Albert Danso & Samuel Adomako & Joseph Amankwah‐Amoah & Samuel Owusu‐Agyei & Renata Konadu, 2019. "Environmental sustainability orientation, competitive strategy and financial performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 885-895, July.
    33. Shirish Sangle, 2010. "Critical success factors for corporate social responsibility: a public sector perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(4), pages 205-214, July.
    34. Pisani, Niccolò & Kourula, Arno & Kolk, Ans & Meijer, Renske, 2017. "How global is international CSR research? Insights and recommendations from a systematic review," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(5), pages 591-614.
    35. Giorgio Mion & Cristian R. Loza Adaui, 2020. "Understanding the purpose of benefit corporations: an empirical study on the Italian case," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-15, December.
    36. Linda O’Riordan & Jenny Fairbrass, 2008. "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Models and Theories in Stakeholder Dialogue," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(4), pages 745-758, December.
    37. Kristin Hah & Susan Freeman, 2014. "Multinational Enterprise Subsidiaries and their CSR: A Conceptual Framework of the Management of CSR in Smaller Emerging Economies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 125-136, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Musah Mohammed Saeed & Mahalakshmi Mudliar & Manisha Kumari, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility and financial performance nexus: Empirical evidence from Ghana," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(6), pages 2799-2815, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alberto Diantini & Salvatore Eugenio Pappalardo & Tim Edwards Powers & Daniele Codato & Giuseppe Della Fera & Marco Heredia-R & Francesco Facchinelli & Edoardo Crescini & Massimo De Marchi, 2020. "Is this a Real Choice? Critical Exploration of the Social License to Operate in the Oil Extraction Context of the Ecuadorian Amazon," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-24, October.
    2. Santiago, Ana Lúcia & Demajorovic, Jacques & Rossetto, Dennys Eduardo & Luke, Hanabeth, 2021. "Understanding the fundamentals of the Social Licence to Operate: Its evolution, current state of development and future avenues for research," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    3. Brueckner, Martin & Eabrasu, Marian, 2018. "Pinning down the social license to operate (SLO): The problem of normative complexity," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 217-226.
    4. Yıldız, Taşkın Deniz & Kural, Orhan, 2020. "The effects of the mining operation activities permit process on the mining sector in Turkey," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    5. Walsh, Bríd & van der Plank, Sien & Behrens, Paul, 2017. "The effect of community consultation on perceptions of a proposed mine: A case study from southeast Australia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 163-171.
    6. Stuart, Alice & Bond, Alan & Franco, Aldina M.A. & Baker, Julia & Gerrard, Chris & Danino, Vittoria & Jones, Kylie, 2023. "Conceptualising social licence to operate," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    7. Mercer-Mapstone, Lucy & Rifkin, Will & Louis, Winnifred & Moffat, Kieren, 2017. "Meaningful dialogue outcomes contribute to laying a foundation for social licence to operate," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 347-355.
    8. Leeuwerik, R.N.C. & Rozemeijer, M.J.C. & van Leeuwen, J., 2021. "Conceptualizing the interaction of context, process and status in the Social License to operate: The case of marine diamond mining in Namibia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    9. Michael O. Erdiaw-Kwasie & Khorshed Alam & Md. Shahiduzzaman, 2017. "Towards Understanding Stakeholder Salience Transition and Relational Approach to ‘Better’ Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case for a Proposed Model in Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 85-101, August.
    10. Amoako, Kwame Oduro & Lord, Beverley R. & Dixon, Keith, 2021. "Narrative accounting for mining in Ghana: An old defence against a new threat?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    11. Park, Byung Il & Ghauri, Pervez N., 2015. "Determinants influencing CSR practices in small and medium sized MNE subsidiaries: A stakeholder perspective," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 192-204.
    12. Xu, Min & Liu, Yong & Cui, Caiyun & Xia, Bo & Ke, Yongjian & Skitmore, Martin, 2023. "Social acceptance of NIMBY facilities: A comparative study between public acceptance and the social license to operate analytical frameworks," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    13. Demajorovic, Jacques & Lopes, Juliana Campos & Santiago, Ana Lucia Frezzatti, 2019. "The Samarco dam disaster: A grave challenge to social license to operate discourse," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 273-282.
    14. Dumbrell, Nikki P. & Adamson, David & Wheeler, Sarah Ann, 2020. "Is social licence a response to government and market failures? Evidence from the literature," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    15. Howse, Tara, 2022. "Trust and the social licence to operate in the Guatemalan mining sector: Escobal Mine case study," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    16. Peter Ansu-Mensah & Emmanuel Opoku Marfo & Lyon Salia Awuah & Kwame Oduro Amoako, 2021. "Corporate social responsibility and stakeholder engagement in Ghana’s mining sector: a case study of Newmont Ahafo mines," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-22, December.
    17. Sara Bice, 2017. "Corporate Social Responsibility as Institution: A Social Mechanisms Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 17-34, June.
    18. Anne-Maree Dowd & Michelle Rodriguez & Talia Jeanneret, 2015. "Social Science Insights for the BioCCS Industry," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-19, May.
    19. Tomina Saveanu & Daniel Badulescu & Sorana Saveanu & Maria-Madela Abrudan & Alina Badulescu, 2021. "The Role of Owner-Managers in Shaping CSR Activity of Romanian SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-19, October.
    20. Shu-Yun Du & Xiao-Chen Shao & Alfredo Jiménez & Jeoung Yul Lee, 2022. "Corporate Social Responsibility of Chinese Multinational Enterprises: A Review and Future Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-22, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:ijocsr:v:6:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1186_s40991-021-00064-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.