Abstract
The purpose of this paper was to investigate the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices related to community development (CD) by Sri Lankan companies. This article investigated CSR practices related to community development in Sri Lanka from secondary data in websites, integrated reports and sustainability reports from a sample of 30 companies in the top 50 Companies in the Sri Lanka’s LMD 100 for the year 2013. Descriptive statistics were employed to investigate the reporting practices. Community development practices of the top 10 companies were investigated in-depth using content analysis. Results showed that 90% of the companies reported their CSR activities, and were moving towards integrated reporting. The majority of the CSR related CD practices were conducted to improve the quality of lives of people living in rural areas and they were mainly to provide better education, health facilities and livelihood development. However, education was the top most priority by the companies. In-depth analysis of this study is limited to the top 10 companies in the LMD 100 which are ranked among the most respected companies. This study implies that education is a top most priority among CSR practices in Sri Lanka because it improves the living standards and also contribute to economic development. This paper contributes to understanding the community development practices in developing countries in which a corporate sector should engage as their CSR if they are to have a strong impact on economic development.
Highlights
Community Development (CD) is an important aspect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries
Based on the impact that the community development has on organisations, this study considers the importance of corporate social responsibility activities related to community development
To investigate the CSR practices related to community development in Sri Lanka, this study explored a sample of 30 companies from the top 50 listed companies in the Sri Lanka’s LMD 100 for the year 2013
Summary
Community Development (CD) is an important aspect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries. Communities in rural areas are unable to reach a higher quality of life as well as lower access to education, medical and social assistance and under-developed infrastructure (Akresh, Lucchetti, & Thirumurthy, 2012; Dupas & Robinson, 2012; Van Niekerk, 2012). Even though this is the responsibility of the governments of the countries, lack of resources has left this gap to be covered by the private sector organisations (Kolk & Lenfant, 2010; Valente & Crane, 2010). Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the publisher
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