The effects of Carroll’s CSR Pyramid on Consumer Buying Behaviour: Case of Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) Company Bamenda Branch, Cameroon.

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue X, October 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

The effects of Carroll’s CSR Pyramid on Consumer Buying Behaviour: Case of Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) Company Bamenda Branch, Cameroon.

Iden Blanche Mbonifor¹, Noumigue Guy Roland Kenmegni^2
1Student, Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Higher Institute of Commerce and Management, The University of Bamenda, Cameroon
²Lecturer, Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, Higher Institute of Commerce and Management, The University of Bamenda, Cameroon

Abstract: This paper attempts to explore the effect of the components of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on Consumer Buying Behaviour (CBB). A questionnaire was administered to 110 consumers of MTN’s products in Bamenda, Cameroon. The results of descriptive, correlation and regression analysis showed that: Bamenda consumers are partially aware of CSR concept, only the ethical responsibility of MTN has a significant relationship with CBB, while the economic, legal and philanthropic responsibilities of MTN do not influence CBB. This means that the Bamenda MTN’s consumers do not think about economic, legal and philanthropic responsibilities when they take their buying decision. Some of the major recommendation is that MTN should communicate more on their legal aspects. For instance, if MTN opens up to the public about its legal activities and on how the company abides with state laws, the public may gain interest in the legality of the company which may go a long way to have an effect on sales, turnover and finally social and financial performance. The current philanthropic works undertaken by MTN foundation like working with communities, giving to charity and visiting orphanages should be improved upon by taking up activities like aiding victims of the crisis.

Keywords: Bamenda, Cameroon, Consumer buying behaviour, Corporate social responsibility.

I. INTRODUCTION

Globally in the past, the attention toward companies and whether they were socially responsible or not was not of interest to the population, households, consumers and others stakeholders. Companies could cause pollution and get away with it without paying any fine or incurring losses. This is not the case nowadays, since implementing or taking into account a corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy has several advantages for firms (Geethamani, 2017). The level of awareness on CSR is at the rising trend among consumers these days. Consumers nowadays have set a higher level of expectation towards the companies and so CSR can no longer be neglected if the business would like to grow up (Chow & Chen, 2012). Managers need to define policies to satisfy all the stakeholders. These stakeholders include shareholders, workers, customers, suppliers and community organizations (Freeman, 1994).
In Africa, there is still a lagging in some countries when it comes to the responsibility of companies to their society. However, several studies have been carried out on CSR practices (policies) in Sub Saharan African countries. Rampersad and Skinner (2014) in their paper, explored how

Read More