The role of business community in the business environment: through the lens of corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibilities is now a buzz word in corporate circles in Sri Lanka. Many organizations engage in CSR activities in order to gain business mileage and build corporate brands. CSR is about how business organizations manage the business process to produce overall positive impact on society's well beings. Hence, the purpose of CSR is to provide a meaningful contribution to the society, as a responsible corporate citizen. The purpose of this paper is to investigate on how business community in East part of the Sri Lanka perceives and understood the concept of CSR. Further, it also identified the potential CSR activities in this region and expressed whether CSR concept presently practiced by the business community. However, the post war created a tremendous business opportunities in this part, it also tries to identify the increasing important to educate the business community about the growing demand for CSR around the globe. Data were collected from the business community and people through an intensive field investigation carried out using a questionnaire. The study employed both qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques. The paper reports the findings of this study. Analysis of the data reveal that most of the business personnel do not have clear understanding of the concept of CSR and they do not have a clear idea on the role they want to play in the society in terms of Corporate citizen. Study further reveals that the degree of CSR activities available in this region. Another major finding was the business personal has little engagement and limited coordination on how they are socially responsible on what they do with the society. Most of the business personnel main objective is to earn profit whereas they don't concern about society's well being. It was recognized that there is high necessity is required to educate the business community on Corporate Social Responsibility.