Vodafone Ghana: An Analysis of CSR Practices - Case Study Report

This case study report examines the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of Vodafone Ghana, a major telecommunications company operating in Ghana. The report provides background information on the Ghanaian market and the company's operations, highlighting the socio-economic challenges faced by the population. It delves into Vodafone Ghana's CSR initiatives, including the establishment of the Vodafone Ghana Foundation, and details their strategies in environmental management, stakeholder engagement, ethical considerations, and community development. The report analyzes the theoretical approaches underpinning Vodafone Ghana's CSR, specifically focusing on the CSR theory, the triple bottom line, and stakeholder theory, and their application within the company's operations. The conclusion emphasizes the company's commitment to community development and its impact on both societal welfare and corporate performance, demonstrating how CSR contributes to sustainable socio-economic development in Ghana.

Running head: CASE STUDY REPORT ON CSR PRACTICE
CASE STUDY REPORT ON CSR PRACTICE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Background of the Case Study:.......................................................................................................2
Statement of the Problem:...............................................................................................................3
CSR Practice:...................................................................................................................................3
Theoretical Approaches:..................................................................................................................5
Corporate Social Responsibility:.................................................................................................5
The Triple Bottom Line:..............................................................................................................6
Stakeholder Theory:.....................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................7
Reference:........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
Vodafone is one of the biggest mobile network operators in the international market. The
company has its headquarter in London with the leading position in the global
telecommunication market. The company is into the CSR activities for many years. Being a
multinational company, the CSR activities of the company is based on the global context. The
case study chosen for the report is of Vodafone Ghana. Vodafone Ghana is operating its
operating its business in Ghana. Ghana being an underdeveloped company, the company has
been performing its CSR practices in Ghana in terms of social and community development. In
fact, the company has established a charity arm in 2009 for supporting the sustainable initiatives
which drive the social change, solve social problems and improve the lives of the people
(Vodafone Ghana 2013). The following report will discuss the case study of Vodafone Ghana in
terms of CSR practices of the same.
Background of the Case Study:
The background of the case depicts the background of the market in which the
organization is operating its business. Being one of the major underdeveloped countries, most of
the people of Ghana live in miserable condition. In Ghana live many communities who are
devoid of any social facilities. The minimum faculties are not being provided to the community
people of Ghana who are living in distressing situations. Most of the people of Ghana are lacking
the basic needs of living such as the education and health. On the other hand, the poor economic
condition of the country is making the situation worse. The case study is therefore based on the
CSR practice of Vodafone Ghana in order to maintain the sustainability of the firm and to

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improve the social condition of the country people which includes various programs and
initiatives.
Statement of the Problem:
In the competitive international business market, the aim of each organization is to
develop and maintain meaningful and effective relationship with the customers as well as with
society. The concept of corporate social responsibilities is therefore focused at the sustainability
of the firm in order to maintain effective relationship both with the customers and society. It
must be noted that by performing the CSR practice in the business environment, the organization
also improves its business as well as social performance (Petrenko et al. 2016). However, there
are other organizations as well as the people who do not accept the idea as good and perceives
the same as a process of draining firm’s financial resources and time (Boafo and Kokuma 2015).
To ensure the positive impact of the CSR practice over the firm’s performance, Vodafone Ghana
is devoted towards the CSR activities.
On the other hand, another reason for the organization for exercising the CSR initiatives
in the Ghanaian context is to increase the number of customers. The low GDP of the country is
the indication of the poor economic condition of the nation. Consequently, most of the people in
Ghana are not capable of affording the service of mobile network. Eventually the performance of
the organizations was also degrading in the esteemed context.
CSR Practice:
The purpose of the CSR practice of Vodafone Ghana is not only to improve the
organizational business performance of the firm, but also is aimed at the social and

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environmental welfare of its operating business environment (Siddiq and Javed 2014). For
performing the CSR practice effectively and in full range, the company has its charity arm called
Vodafone Ghana Foundation. This foundation is exclusively devoted towards the CSR activities
that includes various surveys, feedback programs, educational and health programs,
community development and others (Vodafone Ghana 2013).
` The CSR strategies of Vodafone Ghana include environmental management,
stakeholder’s management, ethical considerations, and community development. The company
addresses the issues in order to ensure the rights of the community people, improving its
business performance, meeting stakeholders’ expectation and maintaining legal
considerations (Vodafone Ghana 2013).
The approach of Vodafone Ghana based on the philosophical realization of the corporate
entities responsibilities towards the society as well as enhancing ad strengthening the business
performance of the organization in the competitive market. The firm is aimed at sustainable
socio economic development of the local communities through diverse welfare initiatives and
projects. The CSR team of the firm along with the financial resources supports the communities
in various ways in order to provide the, beneficial and long run sustainable results out of the
same. On the other hand, the organization has adopted the CSR strategy of partnership with the
community in terms of two-way beneficial approach. The CSR initiatives of the organization for
the community people are the sharing of the development of mobile communication technology
development, providing support to the local communities in which the firm operates, helping
and supporting for alleviating sufferings of people in the disaster areas, supporting and
encouraging music, education and sport projects that are beneficial to the young along with

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their communities, promoting the wellbeing and health of community people and protecting
the natural environment (Vodafone Ghana 2013).
Apart from the community development, the areas in which the company exercises its
CSR activities are the education, health and environment. In terms of doing environmental
welfare within Ghana, the organization has taken part into the activities of reducing the carbon
emission and ensuring the compliance with necessary environmental requirements (Vodafone
Ghana 2013). For the stakeholder management, the company organizes face to face interviews
and discussion session along with various surveys and feedback programs. Considering the
fact of ethical consideration, the company upholds highest ethical standards in all of its
business practices which includes the responsible marketing, responsible network deployment
and legal compliance stakeholder management (Vodafone Group 2017). In terms of
communicative development, the firm arranges some communicative programs for the school
children, disable persons and the elderly people.
Theoretical Approaches:
In regard to the CSR practice of the firm, organizations follow some theoretical approach
for ensuring the proper implementation of CSR strategies. Among all the theoretical approaches
of CSR, the three most important approaches are discussed in this section in relation to the CSR
practice of the chosen organization. The three approaches are:
Corporate Social Responsibility:
The first theory of CSR is known after its name. The CSR theory is referred to be a
conception of playing a role in community welfare for increasing the profit of the firm. The
theory is indicated towards the economic responsibility, legal responsibility, ethical

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responsibility and philanthropic responsibility of the firm (Brammer, Jackson and Matten 2012).
The chosen organization is found to follow this basic theoretical approach of CSR in terms of
practicing the CSR. The economic responsibility of this approach denotes the economical profit
of the organization out of the CSR activities (Kitzmueller and Shimshack 2012). Similarly, the
legal and ethical responsibility refers to the CSR performance of the organization with the
consideration of legal and ethical perspectives. Finally, the philanthropic responsibility of the
approach is concerned with the philanthropic and social welfare activities of the organization.
The firm follows the basic theoretical approach of CSR extensively as evident in the CSR report
of the organization.
The Triple Bottom Line:
This theoretical approach of CSR presents the idea that any organization performs its
CSR practices in order to arrange the bottom line results not only to ensure the economic
profitability of the firm, but also to ensure the social activities of the firm (Savitz 2013). The
approach entails that the organization must fulfill environmental and social requirement that has
emerge red from the organizational activities in the society. The three factors of the theory are
therefore the economic, social and environmental sustainability which is considered to be
achieved by the organization’s CSR practice (Gimenez, Sierra and Rodon 2012). Vodafone
Ghana however does not extensively follow this theory while exercising its CSR. The
integration of this theoretical approach is sometimes questioned as its implementation is found to
be complicated for some of the organizations.
Stakeholder Theory:
As the stakeholder management is considered to be one of the basic approach of firm’s
CSR activities the stakeholder theory is closely connected to the concept of CSR. For the chosen

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organization, the stakeholder management is found to be an important part in which the firm
plays its significant role. Stakeholder theory is considered to be the mirror image for the
organization’s corporate social responsibility (Laczniak and Murphy 2012). This particular
theoretical approach is meant towards the various stakeholder in terms of managing and securing
their rights and responsibility towards the corporate business as well as social environmental
practices (Harrison and Wicks 2013). The two variables of the theory are the stakeholder ethics
and collective bottom line which are the effect of firm’s CSR activities on all the stakeholders.
This theory is closely integrated with Vodafone Ghana as the firm takes responsibilities to ensure
the stakeholders rights and positive impact of the CSR practice on them. In fact, this theory is
followed by most of the firm practicing CSR as the same is found to be most effective and
appropriate to the CSR concept.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded from the above cases study report that Vodafone Ghana is
exclusively exercising its CSR initiatives among the Ghanaian communities and environment.
The company not only is developing the community and society through its CSR practice but
also is enhancing its corporate performance out of the same. In addition, the theoretical
approaches discussed in the report is followed by the company in order to ensure and enhance
firm’s corporate performance along with the social and economic development.

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Reference:
Boafo, N.D. and Kokuma, D.A., 2015. The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on
Organisational Performance: A Case Study of Vodafone Ghana Limited. The International
Journal of Business & Management, 3(5), p.26.
Brammer, S., Jackson, G. and Matten, D., 2012. Corporate social responsibility and institutional
theory: New perspectives on private governance. Socio-economic review, 10(1), pp.3-28.
Gimenez, C., Sierra, V. and Rodon, J., 2012. Sustainable operations: Their impact on the triple
bottom line. International Journal of Production Economics, 140(1), pp.149-159.
Harrison, J.S. and Wicks, A.C., 2013. Stakeholder theory, value, and firm performance. Business
ethics quarterly, 23(1), pp.97-124.
Kitzmueller, M. and Shimshack, J., 2012. Economic perspectives on corporate social
responsibility. Journal of Economic Literature, 50(1), pp.51-84.
Laczniak, G.R. and Murphy, P.E., 2012. Stakeholder theory and marketing: Moving from a firm-
centric to a societal perspective. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 31(2), pp.284-292.
Petrenko, O.V., Aime, F., Ridge, J. and Hill, A., 2016. Corporate social responsibility or CEO
narcissism? CSR motivations and organizational performance. Strategic Management
Journal, 37(2), pp.262-279.
Savitz, A., 2013. The triple bottom line: how today's best-run companies are achieving
economic, social and environmental success-and how you can too. John Wiley & Sons.
Siddiq, S. and Javed, S., 2014. Impact of CSR on organizational performance.

9CASE STUDY REPORT ON CSR PRACTICE
Vodafone Ghana., 2013. Corporate Social Responsibility. [online] Vodafone.com.gh. Available
at: http://www.vodafone.com.gh/vodafone-ghana/corporate-social-responsibility [Accessed 21
Nov. 2017].
Vodafone Ghana., 2013. Vodafone Ghana Foundation. [online] Vodafone.com.gh. Available at:
http://www.vodafone.com.gh/vodafone-ghana/corporate-social-responsibility/vodafone-ghana-
foundation [Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].
Vodafone Group., 2017. Cite a Website - Cite This For Me. [online] Vodafone.com. Available
at: http://www.vodafone.com/content/dam/sustainability/2015/pdf/vodafone-full-report-2015.pdf
[Accessed 21 Nov. 2017].