Community Development as a CSR Strategy for Sri Lanka

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices related to community development (CD) by Sri Lankan companies. This article investigated CSR practices related to community development in Sri Lanka from secondary data in websites, integrated reports and sustainability reports from a sample of 30 companies in the top 50 Companies in the Sri Lanka’s LMD 100 for the year 2013. Descriptive statistics were employed to investigate the reporting practices.  Community development practices of the top 10 companies were investigated in-depth using content analysis. Results showed that 90% of the companies reported their CSR activities, and were moving towards integrated reporting. The majority of the CSR related CD practices were conducted to improve the quality of lives of people living in rural areas and they were mainly to provide better education, health facilities and livelihood development. However, education was the top most priority by the companies. In-depth analysis of this study is limited to the top 10 companies in the LMD 100 which are ranked among the most respected companies. This study implies that education is a top most priority among CSR practices in Sri Lanka because it improves the living standards and also contribute to economic development. This paper contributes to understanding the community development practices in developing countries in which a corporate sector should engage as their CSR if they are to have a strong impact on economic development.