An analysis of corporate social responsibility communication on the websites of banks operating in Ghana

CSR communication has received increased attention from researchers in recent times. The extant literature indicates that philanthropy dominates the CSR communications of most firms in Africa. Furthermore, the existing literature shows that state-owned firms’ CSR communication focuses more on environmental and community issues. Thus, this study examines the differences between local and foreign banks with regard to their CSR communications. It also examines which stakeholder groups banks pay great attention to, in their CSR communication. Data were collected from the websites of 26 banks operating in Ghana. using quantitative content analysis as analytical technique, it was found that foreign banks are better at communicating customer and employee CSR information than local banks. In addition, the findings show that state-owned banks report more information on donations and philanthropy.