Factors affecting the success of corporate social responsibility programmes in South Africa

Corporate social investment expenditure by the private sector in South Africa for the 2016 / 2017 financial year realised R9 billion. As a developing country, South Africa has immense social development needs and understanding the scope of the problem becomes important when establishing how best to address it. The key players in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are the donors who provide the funding, the implementers of projects and the recipients who benefit from the interventions. Identifying critical success factors for implementing CSR projects is essential as this will contribute towards developing effective protocols and best practice in the field. The primary objective of this study was to contribute to the knowledge and operational understanding of CSR programmes in South Africa and to identify protocols to facilitate effective business implementation strategies for CSR. The study sought to answer the research question: What are the critical success factors for CSR programmes in South Africa? An empirical, quantitative study was conducted by surveying implementers of CSR projects in South Africa (n=81). The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationships between the independent variables, namely conceptualisation, implementation, reporting and evaluation, and the dependent variable, namely success of CSR. The empirical research was underpinned by stakeholder theory relating the practice of CSR to a multi-stakeholder context, and project management of life-cycle phases as the implementing arm of CSR projects. The key findings indicated that conceptualisation and implementation were positively and significantly related to success of CSR and that reporting, and evaluation had no significant relationship to success of CSR. Furthermore, recommendations were made to managers and implementers of CSR projects to facilitate and enhance the life-cycle phases of conceptualisation, implementation, reporting frameworks and evaluation of CSR projects