The Effects of Corporate Social Responsibility on Consumer Responses to Mtn Ghana and Vodafone Ghana Products: A Study on Selected Consumers in the Tema Metropolis

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility is viewed by different companies with different lenses. While some companies see the fulfillment of their social responsibility obligation as an investment, others on the contrary see corporate social responsibility as expenditure. This study sought to find out how consumers in the Tema metropolis respond to corporate social responsibility activities of two mobile telecommunication companies. The experimental design was used where respondents were put into two groups of experimental group and control group using the random sampling procedure. The T-test and regression were used to analyse the data. The results of the study indicated that consumers react positively to companies that fulfill their social responsibility obligation by making decisions to buy the companies’ product, identifying themselves with the companies and also rate the image of the companies high. Consumers in the experimental group and the control group expect companies to be socially responsible. With reference to the findings the study drew the following implications that are useful to managers. First, managers should go beyond the conventional marketing mix by including their identities and reputation and the goodwill associated with being a good corporate citizen into their marketing activities. Also, CSR is an effective marketing tool so companies should take the necessary steps to communicate their CSR initiatives to consumers.