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In recent years, the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained recognition and importance in both business and political settings. While considerable research has been conducted on CSR in developed countries, the extant literature on CSR in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is scant and CSR is seen in terms of philanthropy. This paper aims to examine CSR from a broader perspective and in particular to identify the factors that hinder and promote CSR activities in SSA using the Smit (2009) CSR Value Chain Model.

This paper is based on data obtained from a survey conducted by GTZ (now GIZ) on factors promoting and hindering CSR in SSA. The study surveyed 85 companies from six countries, namely; South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Namibia. The study essentially examined the internal and external CSR environments of the companies in the participating countries.

The study revealed that there are nine key promoting and hindering factors of CSR for businesses in SSA. These include: leadership and governance, policy framework, project management, monitoring, evaluation and reporting, stakeholder engagement, staff engagement, government, funding and beneficiation. The study recommends a systemic and context-sensitive approach that relies on the potential of organisations and communities to design and implement their own solution within global frameworks in order to further develop CSR in the region.

There are a number of limitations in this study. First, this study did not include any informants from the responding organisations’ stakeholder groups, but relied mainly on information obtained from single respondents from organisations. Further research should include responses from other stakeholder groups.

To promote or achieve the successful implementation of CSR and broaden its scope within the region beyond its current focus on philanthropy, managers must build bridges with their stakeholders through both formal and informal dialogues and engagement practices. Additionally, firms may enhance and maximise both social and economic value created when managers link their CSR activities to areas that improve firms’ long-term competitive potential by collectively and systematically applying their distinctive strengths to such activities in accordance with the value chain model.

The finding in this study is novel and adds an important contribution to the developing CSR literature in the SSA region.

The purpose of this paper is to summarise corporate social responsibility (CSR) development issues by organising critical CSR promoting and hindering factors, and to evaluate CSR development problems in Lithuania according to organised factors, legal context and previously implemented empirical investigations in new EU member states and Lithuania.

Analysis and generalisation of various literature sources were applied to organise critical CSR promoting and hindering factors. In order to evaluate the CSR development problems in Lithuania, legal documents and collateral analysis of empirical CSR research in new EU member states and Lithuania methods were applied.

The antithesis between economic and social firms' objectives has existed for a long time, but the current modern world's construct refuted this concept in economic terms and has highlighted social, ethical and environmental values, taking into account definite quality options for everyone – the public sector, NGOs and society – with great expectations to act in a socially responsible way. The priorities of CSR, as emphasised by the European Union (EU), are relevant not only to old EU member states, but also to new ones. The research results show that despite the Lithuanian CSR development vision and goals, the main problems relate to the lack of understanding of CSR and a systematic CSR implementation approach.

The study is based on previously implemented empirical investigations in new EU member states with particular attention to CSR promoting and hindering factors and deeper insight into Lithuanian CSR development issues, which provide a starting point for further CSR research in the area of transitional economies.

The paper summarises empirical investigations implemented in new EU member states during the last few years and brings a broader understanding of CSR development problems in transitional economies.

The paper attempts to stimulate discussion about CSR promoting and hindering factors in new EU member states with particular insight into Lithuanian problems.

This study aims to identify and prioritize barriers to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the construction sector.

A literature review was first conducted to identify barriers to CSR performance. After that, construction professionals were invited to validate the appropriateness of the obstacles. The discussion allowed the establishment of a list of barriers to CSR performance and their corresponding categories. Data collected from the survey were then analyzed to prioritize the importance of these barriers by the fuzzy DEMATEL-based ANP (DANP) technique.

The findings presented 16 barriers to CSR, which were categorized into four clusters. The fuzzy DANP analysis showed that strategic vision is the most crucial cluster, followed by the measurement system, stakeholder perspective and scarce resources. Among the sixteen barriers examined, lack of awareness, knowledge and information of CSR; low priority of CSR; lack of metrics to quantify CSR benefits; lack of guidelines and coherent strategies; and lack of CSR enforcement mechanism are the five most crucial barriers.

This study is one of the first that proposes a comprehensive model to prioritize barriers to CSR performance of contractors considering their interrelationships. It provides construction stakeholders with a framework for understanding the linkage between the barriers and CSR framework under the umbrella of stakeholder theory. Thus, the findings might assist construction practitioners and academics in fostering the success of CSR implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of empirical research studies on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in emerging economies.

This paper employed a systematic literature review using research papers published on CSR in emerging economies from 2010 to 2019.

The findings of this paper show that the principal themes of published research articles on CSR in emerging economies are (1) effects of CSR, (2) drivers of CSR and (3) challenges of CSR. Additionally, publications on CSR in emerging economies have been dominated by studies that used quantitative approach and cross-sectional design. A significant number of studies also employed secondary data sources with most of these studies not being sensitive to sectoral influences

The research is non-empirical.

CSR is an area that can mitigate some of the developmental challenges of emerging economies and also stimulate the economic growth of firms. Thus, governments and organisations must partner to provide suitable conditions that would influence organisations to incorporate CSR in their business plans.

This review is the first of its kind that identifies the principal thematic domains of research on CSR in emerging economies. This review also provides proof of the areas of research that need attention and also provides recommendation on future areas of study on CSR in emerging economies.

The purpose of this editorial is to provide a quick glance at the dominant issues that have characterized the developing economics debate during the past five decades. It seeks to offer a backdrop for the papers in the present volume of AJEMS.

It is based on a review of a selection of literature that highlights the dominant perspectives in development economics.

It draws a distinction between soft and hard economics, arguing that economic growth must be converted into social change that benefits poor for it to be described as development-oriented.

It provides a direction for future research into issues of economic growth and poverty alleviation in Sub-Sahara Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to examine organizations’ commitment and communication of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a developing country’s context.

The study employed an empirical quantitative approach by surveying 193 managers from multiple organizations in Ghana, and used independent sample t-test as well as descriptive statistics to examine the phenomenon.

The study established that firms operating in Ghana know about CSR and are committed to it. But the level of understanding of the concept as evidenced by their practices is limited to philanthropic activities. The study further revealed that firms operating in Ghana communicate their CSR activities to stakeholders in many forms. Additionally, organizations employ equally varied channels in communicating their CSR initiatives.

The study contributes the Ghanaian perspective of CSR to the Sub-Sahara African literature, and by that it enhances our present understanding of the commitment and communication channels of CSR activities by companies operating in Ghana.

Empirical Literature on CSR communication in developing countries is limited. The paucity of academic enquiry on the issue has stimulated this research, based on the perceptions of managers of firms operating in Ghana about their principles of CSR, their way to disclose these activities and the kind of CSR activities done. Further research directions are also articulated.

Studies showed that stakeholders want the construction sector’s organisations to be more accountable and transparent regarding social and environmental issues through corporate social responsibility (CSR). There is a paucity of literature regarding CSR implementation in the construction sector, especially in developing countries like South Africa. Hence, the study evaluated CSR’s merits and hindrances and suggested solutions to enhance its implementation in the South African construction sector of Mpumalanga Province.

The researchers employed a questionnaire survey method to collect data from 68 useable respondents in the South African construction sector of Mpumalanga Province. The main section of the questionnaire was divided into three parts, each addressing an objective mean item score ranking technique.

Findings show management lacks willingness, absence of recognition for implementing CSR at tender adjudication, professionals regard CSR as a “soft issue,” inadequate ability to carry out CSR initiatives and lax CSR knowledge emerged as the key issues hindering construction stakeholders, especially construction companies, from participating in CSR in South Africa. The research suggests initiatives to enhance CSR in the construction industry.

The study shows that the findings can be used to improve the implementation of CSR engagement and possibly enhance a policy to stimulate friendly CSR in the South African construction sector.

This study aims to investigate the influence of external factors identified by the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal (PESTEL) framework on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance in Vietnamese construction firms.

The snowball sampling method was employed to gather 182 validated responses. Employing Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the research analyzed how these factors correlate with CSR practices under institutional theory.

Results indicated that social, economic, environmental, legal and technological factors positively impacted CSR performance. Among these, social factors had the most significant effect, followed sequentially by economic, environmental, legal and technological influences. Intriguingly, political factors demonstrated no significant association with CSR performance.

The strong impact of social factors confirms that societal norms and cultural values are critical in shaping corporate behavior in Vietnam. Firms can leverage this insight by intensifying their community engagement and social investment. Additionally, the negligible role of political factors in shaping CSR suggests that firms might not need to focus heavily on political engagement in Vietnam. However, firms should remain aware of legal changes as legal factors influence CSR outcomes.

Despite CSR’s growing importance, there remains a notable research gap regarding how external macro-environmental factors influence CSR performance, particularly within the construction industry. The findings emphasize the importance of aligning business strategies with socioeconomic and environmental aspects.

Mining activities can promote development despite issues of environmental and social impact; however, corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation is still an issue in the industry, which has received little attention in the literature and almost none to the operational level. This paper aims to address this gap by adopting the perspective of CSR practitioners to explore the way mining companies implement CSR at site level.

This paper uses an exploratory approach with in-depth interviews to investigate site-level CSR implementation and challenges in the context of mining in Brazil.

This study identifies primary challenges in CSR implementation and several ways in which they might be addressed. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper identifies for the first time two implementation-hindering aspects of the routine of CSR practitioners – excessive time spent at the office as opposed to in the field engaging in the community and a disproportionate amount of time spent on complaint management. In addition, this paper demonstrates the applicability of stakeholder theory in the CSR field, highlighting the need for increased collaboration among internal and external stakeholders to advance CSR implementation.

This study adopts the perspective of CSR practitioners, who are key stakeholders in CSR implementation, working in mining sites in Brazil, as the impact of mining can be especially marked in developing countries.