CSR in third-world countries: South African retail employees’ perceptions of their organisations’ internal and external corporate social responsibility initiatives

Vol 22 | Issue 3 | 103-116 | September 2026

Martha E. Theron
Department of Marketing and Retail Management
University of South Africa
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4759-302X

Johannes A. Wiid*
Department of Marketing and Retail Management
University of South Africa
jwiid@unisa.ac.za
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2195-532X

*Corresponding author

DOI

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is embedded in an organisation’s corporate identity (CI) and is an integral part of an organisation’s strategy, which requires organisations to effectively integrate social and environmental issues in their core values, culture, vision and operations (Bode & Singh, 2018; Ahern, 2015; Lee, Park & Lee, 2013). This study explored South African retail employees’ perceptions of their organisations’ CSR initiatives as part of the CI, as available research focuses mostly on developed market economies and on the perceptions of external stakeholders, leaving a research gap concerning how CSR is perceived by employees (Burns, 2019; Roeder, 2019; Pratihari & Uzma, 2018; Deng & Xu, 2017; Fredericksz, 2015; Hwang & Kandampully, 2015). Because employees are important internal stakeholders in an organisation, organisations need to present themselves to employees in a way that they can positively associate with the CI, which includes CSR initiatives.

The sample size was 229 South African retail employees and the study made use of a computer-aided, self-administered survey distributed via LinkedIn. The results indicated that the respondents perceived external social CSR to be significantly important as part of an organisation’s CI, and that internal social CSR has the least significant relationship with CI. The relationships between external and internal environmental CSR, external and internal economic CSR and CI were also not significant. The findings of the study can provide insight into CSR as part of the CI in order for organisations to leverage the effect CSR can have on employees’ attitudes and behaviour and to strengthen relationship marketing with employees.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility (CSR), employees, retail, corporate identity (CI)

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