Abstract
The study examines the relationship between the Corporate Citizenship (CC) practices of leading firms in their industries and their level of advancement in CC. The study took a conceptual approach and used two cases not as empirical evidence but for illustration purposes. The main hypothesis was that CC practices of leading firms find expression from the fact that these firms tend to play two significant roles. First, leading firms in CC can set standards (pace-setting) of CC practice in their industry which would become a benchmark for other firms. Second, leading firms take up the challenge to catch up with the standards set by other firms in the industry in other aspects of CC where they are not leaders. The results show that the two cases used by the study have revealed how the CC practices of a leading firm in an industry under institutional isomorphism that manifests through pace setting, and catching-up can improve the general CC practices of an industry. As a practical recommendation, champions of CC like NGOs should target leading firms more as their practices are more likely to be replicated by other firms in the industry since the study has demonstrated that firms in the industry tend to copy leaders (innovators and early adopters) more than laggards. Key words: Corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, socially responsible behaviour of leading firms, institutional isomorphism.
Highlights
A newcomer in the field of business and social issues would be bewildered by a number of different terms and definitions that imply similar or identical meaning such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Business Ethics, Corporate Philanthropy, Corporate Citizenship (CC) among other terms (Valor, 2005)
One of the basic questions about CC is: why does CC continue to grow in importance and significance among academics and business communities? In response to this question, some empirical studies with the aim to make a Business Case (BC) for CC have examined the relation between CC and corporate financial performance (CFP)
The two characteristics that make the CC practices of leading firm a CC driver are realized in the context of coercive isomorphic pressures, mimetic isomorphism and normative isomorphism as illustrated by the two cases
Summary
A newcomer in the field of business and social issues would be bewildered by a number of different terms and definitions that imply similar or identical meaning such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Business Ethics, Corporate Philanthropy, Corporate Citizenship (CC) among other terms (Valor, 2005). This leads to a basic question that is instrumental to the African context of CC: ̳what is driving CC that has led to its continued growth in importance and significance among academics and corporate Africa?‘ This question is critical since the study opines that there are three key broad drivers of CC, that is business case, institutional drivers and managerial values. This paper extends the institutional theory of CC by positing that one of the forces behind the continued growth in significance of CC among academics and business communities can be associated with the CC practices of leading firms in their respective industries This is what this study opines is one of the key drivers of CC in Africa in general and Kenya in particular. That is why the social responsibility of the leading firms in an industry could set precedence that would fill the gaps left by business case, state regulation as well as managerial values exuded by self-regulation
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