Multinational and local companies’ corporate social responsibility practices in a developing country: multi-stakeholders perspectives in Tanzania

The purpose of this study was to investigate Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) and local companies’ involvement in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices in Tanzania. Companies continue to cause social and environmental dangers in their operations, which has disappointed many stakeholders. While this happens, there are scant studies addressing how companies participate in CSR to reduce some of the dangers they cause during their operations. The neo-institutional theory was used to address what, how and why companies elect to participate in CSR and focus on the practices, perceptions, motivations, and the role of institutions in promoting CSR in Tanzania. The study used a multiple case study methodology rooted in the interpretive paradigm to understand the subjective contributions from corporate managers, government and its agencies, NGOs and community members. To realize this, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions were adopted to seek verbal explanations from participants’ experiences while documentary review explored how the government has documented the CSR. Companies practice CSR on different levels, but the programs directed to health, education, water service, empowerment and environmental concerns with long lasting effect are regarded as the most important by stakeholders. Through CSR; companies minimise risks, become good citizens, and improve their brands and corporate images. Companies are motivated to practice CSR due to top management and employee support and coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism. The coercion comes from parent companies, local and international organizations, government agencies, NGOs and community members. Mimetic isomorphism is caused by invitation of general public, government officers and media during handover of CSR donations to attract attention of peer companies to emulate the same. The normative isomorphism is caused by international and local institutions, Equator Principles and ISO standards. The institutional roles are exercised by the government, agencies, NGOs and community members through incentives, awareness and directives during registration and interactions with communities. Overall, the thesis provides five main contributions: the knowledge of CSR practices in Tanzania is realized, it complements the sparse prior CSR literature, implication of the theory and methodological and stakeholder framework contributions. Finally, the study concludes and provides implication to inform policy and practice for the betterment of CSR.