A survey of the extent of involvement in corporate social responsibility by Kenyan public universities

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility is on the "hot list" of emerging concepts which business needs to understand and address because it carries potentially significant implications for business success. Just about every sector faces significant responsibility issues, including those previously seen as largely benign. Motivated by increasing community social concerns, public universities have got roles to play in society as far as CSR aspects are concerned, more specifically in environmental, students, employees and community concerns. Given the above facts therefore, the study sought to determine first, the Public Universities awareness on the concept of CSR, second, the social activities and the Universities level of involvement and lastly, factors affecting implementation of the same. The population of the study was the six public universities, which are spread through the country. Since the population was small a census survey was used to capture the information required. When it came to data collection, the response rate was actually quite impressive. The researcher was able to achieve the hundred percent target. The empirical results obtained from the field showed that most of the public universities were aware of the concept of CSR but the level of involvement apart from one university was quite low. 83.3% of all the universities, were partially involved in the corporate social activities while only 16.7% were actually involved. Financial constraints, lack of awareness among their members of staff and little government support, were the major factors contributing to failure in the implementation of the corporate social activities in these institutions.