MELLA Ashley - M2 UDs Dissertation 2019

REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON REPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN
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Peace-Work-Fatherland Paix-Travail-Patrie
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UNIVERSITY OF DSCHANG UNIVERSITE DE DSCHANG
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POST GRADUATE SCHOOL ECOLE DOCTORALE
DSCHANG SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN THE
TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY
IN CAMEROON
A dissertation presented and defended publicly for the award of a Master of Sciences
OPTION: STRATEGY AND MANAGEMENT OF ORGANISATIONS
By
Mella Ashley TABI AYAMBA
Registration number: CM-UDS-16SEG1018
Supervisor
Dr. KENMOGNE FOHOUO Alain
Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Economics and Management
University of Dschang
Academic year
Academic year
2018/2019
2018/2019
1
July2O15
July 2O15
July2O15
July 2O15
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN THE

TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY IN CAMEROON
July2O15
July 2O15
CERTIFICATION
I, MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA, certify that this thesis is a product of my endeavours.
It was carried out under the supervision of Dr. KENMOGNE FOHOUO ALAIN, Senior
Lecturer University of Dschang.
This work is therefore authentic and has not been presented before for the award of a
University degree
Name and signature of the author
MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA
Date..........................................................................
Name and signature of the supervisor
Dr. KENMOGNE FOHOUO Alain

Senior Lecturer
University of Dschang
Date..........................................................................
DEDICATION
To my mother
AGBOR Clara
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The achievement of this research work has been realised with a lot of challenges, support and
dedication. It is difficult to appreciate all those who gave me assistance to complete this
dissertation. I am particularly grateful to my supervisor Dr. KENMOGNE FOHOUO Alain
who contributed greatly, through his constructive criticisms, advice, suggestions and unfailing
interest in my work.
I want to show appreciation to the administration of the Faculty of Economics and

Management of the University of Dschang for this platform that has built my intellectual
capacity consequently leading to the accomplishment of this work.
Special appreciation goes to Prof Galega Samgena and Dr Tambi Daniel for their constructive
comments and direction, professional assistance and dedication of precious time in reading
and correcting this research work.
I equally want to appreciate my colleague and classmate Nembot Achil for his contribution to
this research and study as a whole.
Finally, I am grateful to the Father for his mercy and grace that has kept me going from the
beginning of my study to the realization of this research work.
ii
BRIEF CONTENT
DEDICATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
LIST OF TABLES iv
LIST OF FIGURES v
ABSTRACT vi
RESUME vii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1
PART I: NOTIONS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND
CUSTOMER LOYALTY 9
CHAPTER 1: PRESENTATION OF CONCEPTS UNDER INVESTIGATION 10
1.1 Definition and Evolution of Corporate social responsibility 10
1.2 The concept of Customer Loyalty and its antecedents 15
CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK OF CORPORATE
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY 20
2.1 Theoretical framework of corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty. 20
2.2 Empirical Literature on Corporate Social Responsibility and customer loyalty 25
PART II: METHODOLOGY USED IN ANALYSING CSR AND CUSTOMER
LOYALTY RELATIONS, DATA PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
31
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY USED TO EVALUATE THE
VARIABLES32
3.1 Presentation of the population, tools of collection and research design 32
3.2 Operationalization, description and measurement of variables 35
CHAPTER 4:PRESENTATION OF ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
40
4.1 Presentation and interpretation of results 40
4.2 Verification of hypotheses and summary of findings 47
GENERAL CONCLUSION 55
BIBLIOGRAPHY 59
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 69
TABLE OF CONTENTS 72
iii
APPENDICES 75
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Garriga and Mele’s theories and related approaches 23

Table 2: Operationalization of concepts and variables 37
Table 3: Presentation of the demographic profile of respondents 40
Table 4: Correlations matrix between corporate social responsibility variables and customer
loyalty 47
Table 5: Model Summaryb 48
Table 6: Analysis of variance (ANOVAa) of the model 49
Table 7: Model parameters corporate social responsibility variables and customer loyalty
49
Table 8: Summary of hypotheses results 52
iv
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Carroll´s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility 11

Figure 2: The evolution of CSR 14
Figure 3 : Interconnectedness of concepts 21
Figure 4: The dynamic model of customer loyalty 24
Figure 5: Presentation of age description of respondents 41
Figure 6: Presentation of the longevity of telephone usage of the respondents 42
Figure 7: Presentation of descriptive statistics on Educational initiatives 43
Figure 8: Presentation of descriptive statistics on Environmental initiatives 44
Figure 9: Presentation of descriptive statistics on Social initiatives 45
Figure 10 : Presentation of descriptive statistics on Health initiatives 46
Figure 11: Presentation of descriptive statistics on Customer loyalty 53
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ABSTRACT
This study was carried out with the purpose of examining the extent to which CSR initiatives
affect customer loyalty in the Telecommunication sector, precisely the mobile service
operators. This work answers this question by applying the stakeholder theory with four
dimensions of social responsibility initiatives on education, health, environment and social
support in the leading mobile telecommunications operators in Cameroon. The study equally
applied a stratified random sample of 623 customers from different classes. Multiple
regression models were used to make predictions about the dependent variable. The results
show that educational and social initiatives exert a positive and significant influence on
Customer loyalty in the Telecommunication industry. Even though the two initiatives have a
positive relation with Customer loyalty, Social initiatives exerts more positive impact than
Educational initiatives. Hence, we recommend that Telecoms should engage in CSR
initiatives as a tool for advertising and also to change the perception that customers have of
them.
Key words: corporate social responsibility, behavioral loyalty, consumer behaviour,

attitudinal loyalty
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RESUME
Cette étude a été réalisée dans le but d’examiner dans quelle mesure les initiatives de RSE
affectent la fidélité des clients dans le secteur des télécommunications, et plus précisément
dans les opérateurs de services mobiles. Ce travail répond à cette question en appliquant la
théorie des parties prenantes avec quatre dimensions d'initiatives de responsabilité sociale en
matière d'éducation, de santé, d'environnement et de soutien social chez les principaux
opérateurs de télécommunications mobiles au Cameroun. L'étude a également appliqué un
échantillon aléatoire stratifié de 623 clients de différentes classes. Le modèle de régression
multiple ont été utilisés pour prédire la variable dépendante. Les résultats montrent que les
initiatives éducatives et sociales exercent une influence positive significative sur la fidélité de
la clientèle dans le secteur des télécommunications. Bien que les deux initiatives aient une
relation positive avec la fidélité de la clientèle, les initiatives sociales exercent un impact plus
positif que les initiatives éducatives.
Mots-clés: responsabilité
sociale des entreprises, la fidélité comportementale, comportement
du consommateur, la fidélité attitudinale.
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GENERAL INTRODUCTION
The general introduction is the project proposal and consists of the background of the study, the
statement of the problem, the research questions and objectives as well as presentation of hypothesis.
This is a roadmap of the whole study.
1. Context of the study
Companies that have made CSR a central part of their businesses are reaping the benefits in
the form of company sustainability, reducing liabilities, and insurance costs, as well as
improved brand image (Saunders, 2006). Today, corporations know that CSR is inextricably
linked to their reputation and brand identity. The consumers' idea of a company comprises
perception in two broad categories, brand performance and brand equity. Brand equity refers
to the perception consumers have about a company above and beyond those that are narrowly
reflected via product quality and company performance (Pokorny, 1995). Brand performance
refers to the contribution of the brand towards the business performance as a whole (Pokorny,
1995). Ahearne, Bhattacharya and Gruen (2010) relate brand performance to tangible and
measurable outcomes that a brand possesses with regard to the economic value of a company.
To win loyalty in today's markets, companies have to focus on building and maintaining
customer loyalty and CSR has become a useful tool in this regard. However, the relationship
between CSR and customer loyalty remains largely unexplored (Liu and Zhou, 2010). CSR
might affect the value of a company's brand. Intense competition has in many markets
decreased the prospects for differentiation in terms of technology and product/service quality.
For this reason, the concept is an important attribute that can enhance a company's image
(Ahmad and Jaseem, 2006).Therefore, even more corporations are increasing conscience
about the importance of matching their own interests and the interests of society by taking
responsibility for the impact of their activities on employees, suppliers, customers,
communities and other stakeholders as well as the environment. Although, this is an
obligation that goes beyond economics or law, and in which companies have to act ahead in
pursuing long term goals that can also be good for the society and the environment as a
whole.
MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

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In 2010, International standard ISO 26000 defined CSR as the ability of an organization to
“identify and accept responsibility for the impacts of their decisions and activities on society
and the environment through transparent and ethical behaviour that contributes to sustainable
development …” CSR activities (environmental programs, ethical products or social actions)
contribute to a better evaluation of companies (Brown and Dacin 1997; Öberseder et al.,
2013). Prior studies have underlined a positive relationship between CSR policy and customer
loyalty through different mechanisms (Ailawadi et al, 2013; Lombart and Louis, 2014; Pérez
and Del Bosque, 2015). Supporting a CSR activity also affects intangible resources such as
trust, an important mediating variable, reputation and corporate image (Caroll and Shabana,
2010). Trust and overall evaluation of the store are better if consumers perceive CSR.
Through cause marketing, companies are able to illustrate that they can do well for both,
themselves and stakeholders, and in turn generate favorable outcomes (Caroll and Shabana,
2010).
In order for organizations to survive in the competitive marketing environment, they need to
note that their long-term survival partly depend on their ability to confront social and
environmental issues by being socially responsible (Collier & Esteban, 2007). Environmental
CSR encompassed any action undertaken in order to promote environmental sustainability;
external social CSR dealt with initiatives aimed at addressing the needs of individuals and
communities while internal social CSR dealt with the degree to which organizations address
social asymmetries with regards to gender, race, sexual orientation and disability (Aguilera,
Rupp, Williams and Ganapathi, 2007).
Cameroon has been highlighted as one of the countries in Africa in which large businesses
promote the practice of CSR primarily through philanthropic projects in health, education and
poverty reduction. Several sector businesses are involved in development initiatives to create
employment and generate sources of income. Most large businesses such as ENEO, MTN,
SGBC, SABC etc. have taken discretionary measures to improve the living conditions of the
local population. Increasingly, the employees, consumers and the local communities are
expecting a lot from businesses operating in the country and local areas. Corporate social
responsibility existed in Cameroon since the colonial period, although it was not recognised
as such. Company policies were geared towards their workers which in turn benefited the
people living around the operating areas of these companies. Given this, the study is

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concerned with the aspect of external Corporate Social Responsibility aimed at satisfying the
consumers' needs and wants.
In Cameroon, in one way or the other, the various telecommunication companies operating in
the country have striven to display their good corporate image by helping in developmental
projects. There is no doubt that these telecommunication companies have helped in projects
including building and renovating schools, provisions of health and sanitation facilities among
others. In a similar vein, these same companies are perceived by customers as charging call
rates that are absolutely above the ability of the ordinary Cameroonian especially with those
living on less than 1000 FCFA a day. Even disheartening is the fact that customers pay high
charges for services that are very poor. It is in its way unique for the man in the rural area to
trek to a higher height before being connected to make calls.
These contradictory facts in the telecom industry gives indications that what a company
perceives as socially good might not be perceived by the customer as such. Therefore, it is
imperative we seek to find out the impact that corporate social responsibility has on customer
loyalty.
2. Problem statement
Many established companies, start-ups and small businesses have often failed and ran out of
business for the simple reason that they failed to contribute to the communities in which they
operate. Companies that contribute to their communities mainly fulfil their corporate social
responsibility policies and promises. To tap into the customers’ ever flowing commitment to
any brand or product, or business, the company must perform philanthropic or charitable
activities.
Companies stand to gain a lot from getting involved in Corporate Social Responsibility
activities, the ability create long-lasting positive impact in a community, enhancement of
customer relationships and of course, building trust. All these sounds like what CSR appears
to be and what the Cameroon Telecommunication companies should be doing. Telecoms
should not see this as a means of wasting resources but as a way to sell their brand and gain
consumers loyalty thereby gaining a large share of the market.
CSR policies and practices have been proven to be influenced by company size profitability,
corporate governance structure, company industry, and company’s rules and policies. Factors

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such as characteristics of employees and personal attributes; traditional beliefs and customs,
managerial attitude to protect the environment drive this practice in companies. While the
concept has become an established concept in some countries like the UK, USA, etc. with
many academics researching on its impact on the society and the environment, very limited
studies have been conducted in Cameroon. This could be justified based on the fact that CSR
is not an established concept amongst businesses in Cameroon. A survey conducted by
Institut RSE Afrique in 2014, found out that most of the businesses in Cameroon have no
sustainable or CSR division, and a large number of the business are unaware of what is
expected of them in terms of CSR practices. Baxter (2015) further pointed out in another
study on Chinese businesses in Cameroon that CSR practices have not developed amongst the
businesses in Cameroon due to unsolved problem that goes back years, such as unpaid
salaries, bonuses, etc.
Akwaowo and Swanson (2015) in their study concluded that the increase number of foreign
direct investment in Cameroon did not lead to a higher level of corporate responsibility and
poverty reduction in the regions where the businesses were operating. On the contrary they
found out that there was an increase in the poor standard of living among the citizens due to
low involvement in corporate responsibility. Demuijnck and Ngnodjom (2013) examined the
responsibilities of SME in Cameroon in comparison with CSR practices in companies in
Europe. Tita (2011) considered the coordination of corporate social responsibility in sub-
Saharan Africa with particular reference to transnational corporations in Cameroon and found
out that there was less use of socialisation and little evidence of centralisation with
transnational corporations CSR practices in Cameroon. Ndjanyou (2015) and Sotamenou
(2014) examined whether the SMEs in Cameroon and their management practices were
backed up with public entities, business associations and civil society engagement. Ollong
(2014) examined CSR practices of three companies in Cameroon (MTN, Guinness Cameroon
and BAT) such as health projects, employment rate, payment of better levels of wages to the
employees that was more than what the government and domestic companies offered their
employees and concluded that the companies were impacting positively on the government
and society in which they conducted businesses. In all these prior studies, there was no
mention of the perception and loyalty that consumers have towards a brand based on its good
causes.

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customer loyalty and CSR has become a useful tool in this regard. CSR might affect the value
of a company's brand. Intense competition has in many markets decreased the prospects for
differentiation in terms of technology and product/service quality. For this reason, CSR is an
important attribute that can enhance a company's image (Ahmad and Jaseem, 2006).
However, the relationship between CSR and customer loyalty remains largely unexplored
(Liu and Zhou, 2010). This study which examines consumer perception towards corporate
social responsibility seeks to throw more light on customers’ expectations which when
fulfilled by corporations through their CSR activities will help them reap tangible benefits and
gain long-term loyal customers.
3. Research question
The main research question motivating this study goes thus: How do corporate social
responsibility initiatives influence customer loyalty in the Telecommunications industry in
Cameroon?
The research seeks to answer the following questions:
1. To what extent does environmental CSR activities influence customers’ loyalty in
the telecom sector?
2. How does social activities influence customer loyalty to a brand in the telecom
sector?
3. Do educational support activities have any effect on customer loyalty in the
telecom sector?
4. To what extent do health support activities affect customers’ loyalty in the telecom
sector?
4. Research objectives
The main objective of this study is to ascertain whether perceived CSR initiatives influence
consumer loyalty in the Telecommunication industry in Cameroon.
The study seeks to achieve the following specific objectives:
1. To what extent does environmental CSR activities influence customers’ loyalty in
the telecom sector
2. To investigate the extent to which social activities influence customer loyalty to a
brand in the telecom sector

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3. To assess the effect of educational support activities on customer loyalty in the

telecom sector
4. To evaluate the extent to which health support activities affect customers’ loyalty
in the telecom sector
5. Research hypotheses
This study intends to identify how CSR activities influence customer loyalty and thereby
attempts to increase the understanding of CSR activities as an emerging marketing tool. In
order to study this matter we chose to inquire customers of the telecom sector. Governmental
regulations and customer involvement has made CSR an important strategic issue for firms in
the telecommunication industry. We thus put forward the main hypothesis:
Corporate social responsibility activities have a significant impact on customer loyalty.
Customer loyalty has become an important challenge for companies in the context of price
war because of its positive effects to a chain for the long-term. Consumers are more inclined
to become loyal to the company outlet if they judge them favorably on both monetary and
nonmonetary aspects (Babin et al. 2004). CSR activities (environmental programs, ethical
products or social actions) contribute to a better evaluation of companies (Öberseder et al.
2013).
Some researches question the direct link between CSR actions and loyalty or consumers’
future behavioral intentions (Lombart and Louis, 2014). However, several studies show a
positive link between CSR and loyalty (Mohr and Webb, 2005; Stanaland et al. 2011;
Ailawadi et al. 2013). The previous studies enable us to formulate the first hypothesis such as:
H1: There is a significant relationship between environmental CSR activities and
customers’ loyalty in the telecom sector
Customer awareness of CSR activities of a company or brand has also shown to influence
purchase intentions, and purchase intentions has shown to influence customer retention and
loyalty (Ali et al. 2010). So far, the effect of CSR on customer loyalty has been shown
through moderating and mediating effects via competitive positioning, brand identification
and brand advocacy (Du et al. 2007). The previous studies enable us to formulate the second
hypothesis thus:
H2: There is a significant relationship between social activities and customer loyalty to a
brand in the telecom sector
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Today, consumers more than ever expect companies to engage in CSR activities (Creyer and
Ross, 1997; Foster, 2007). CSR is expected to enhance loyalty. Therefore, it is supposed that
only CSR initiatives that match the target consumers’ personal support can trigger consumer-
company identification and with that increase loyal behavior. Although the field of CSR in
consumer behavior research is still relatively small, over the past years there has been a
growing interest in studying the links between CSR and marketing. The previous studies
enable us to formulate the third hypothesis thus:
H3: Educational support activities have a significant impact on customer loyalty in the
telecom sector
Some research do suggest that corporate management should apply CSR policies to marketing
strategies, as this will have a positive effect on corporate brand equity, customer equity,
market share and corporate image (Bhattacharya, Smith & Vogel, 2004). At the same time,
managers increasingly see CSR as a marketing tool to help create a competitive advantage
(Pohle, 2008). The previous studies enable us to formulate the fourth hypothesis thus:
H4: Health support activities have a significant effect customers’ loyalty in the telecom
sector
6. Significance of the study

Practically, this dissertation reveals the expectations of consumers with regards to CSR
activities, a valuable factor to consider when formulating CSR policy. This study also assesses
the impact of CSR activities on customers and communities which gives a fair idea on which
CSR activities to focus on, so as to satisfy the needs of customers. This will help both private
and public companies to realize the need of establishing CSR for achievement of the
competitive advantage and improved performance. They will realise that CSR can be used
as a powerful tool of advertising and gaining longterm loyal customers. It will further
outline and discuss the benefits and pitfalls of Corporate Social Responsibility practices
and effectively let the player(s) in this field have a grip of how they can be able to improve
the implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility programs in order to improve customer
loyalty.
Theoretically, the findings of this study would not only benefit the telecom industry but also
very important for policy formulation especially in the area of consumer interests by the

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bodies that oversee CSR activities in Cameroon. Finally, the study will contribute to existing
knowledge on CSR and serve as a springboard for further studies.
7. Research methodology
Our work is a quantitative study based on a hypothetico-deductive approach due to abundant
literature in this domain. This approach makes it possible to set a number of hypotheses at
first, then to check whether the independent variable have a significant influence on the
dependent variable in order to accept or reject the hypotheses. Consequently, this research
adopts a positivist position on the epistemological level because we start from the
presumptions of knowledge (hypotheses) that we will verify empirically through the
questionnaire survey. Convenience sampling technique will be used in determining the
population and sample size. Questionnaires will be distributed to all classes of customers who
are using products of these selected Telecommunication Companies.
8. Organisation of the study

The dissertation is structured into two parts of two (2) chapters each. In the first part, the
nature and scope of corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty will be examined.
The first chapter is the conceptual framework. Chapter two is theoretical and empirical review
consisting of a literature review describing the development of the concept Corporate Social
Responsibility and a definition of the concept of customer loyalty focusing on their
background and practice. The second part focuses on the research methodology, presentation
and analysis of data, verification of hypothesis and discussion of results. Chapter three
examines the research methodology. Chapter four is the presentation and analysis of data as
well a summary of findings and recommendations.

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PART I:
NOTIONS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY
In this part, we explore both concepts under investigation in detail. Literature relating to the variables
under investigation will be exploited under two chapters. Chapter one will be reviewing Corporate
Social Responsibility definition, evolution, challenges and Customer loyalty antecedents while chapter
two will focus on related literature review of CSR and customer loyalty; conceptual, theoretical and
empirical. Chapter two will end with econometric model.

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CHAPTER 1:
PRESENTATION OF CONCEPTS UNDER INVESTIGATION
This chapter presents the conceptual framework of corporate social responsibility and
customer loyalty in the telecom sector in Cameroon that will be used to carry out the study.
Section 1 considers in detail the concept of corporate social responsibility and CSR activities,
while section 2 focuses on customer loyalty and its antecedents.
1.1Definition and Evolution of Corporate social responsibility

In this section, we are going to define CSR and explore the various forms of corporate social
responsibility. We will also see how the concept has evolved over time.
1.1.1 Definition of Corporate social responsibility

Bowen (1953) provided an initial definition of CSR: “Corporate social responsibility refers to
the obligations of businessmen to pursue those policies, to make decisions, or to follow those
lines of action which are desirable in term of the objectives and values of our society”.
According to Carroll (1983), “corporate social responsibility involves the conduct of a

business so that it is economically profitable, law abiding, ethical and socially supportive. To
be socially responsible then means that profitability and obedience to the law are foremost.
This relates to the firm’s ethics and the extent to which it supports the society in which it
exists with contributions of money, time and talent”.
Llewellyn (2009) argues that CSR may result in corporations obtaining a more powerful
position within society. She suggests that it is naïve to expect corporations to accept greater
social responsibilities without requiring something in return. In accepting responsibilities,
corporations would incur costs and in return they would claim rights.
Others argue that CSR is merely a window-dressing, or an attempt to pre-empt the role of
government as a watchdog over powerful multinational corporations (Handerson, 2001).

10
Sarker (2014) defines corporate social responsibility as the continuing commitment by

business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the
quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as the local community and society
at large. In its broadest sense, corporate social responsibility reflects the needs and demands
of the society, which goes beyond the mere economic one.
1.1.2 Forms of Corporate social responsibility

Over the years, researchers and scholars have provided an abundance of CSR definitions. In
this report, the study will proceed using the definition formulated by the European
Commission in 2011: “CSR is the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society”
(www11:6). This definition is chosen since it in one simple sentence covers the complete
societal responsibility of corporations and accordingly includes the integration of social,
environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concerns into their business operations
and core strategy. This concerns can be categorised into the various forms of CSR as depicted
in the diagram below:
Philanthropic Responsibilities
Be a good corporate citizen,
Contribute resources toteh community
Improve quality of life
Ethical Responsibilities
Be ethical
Obligation to do what is right, just and fair.
Avoid harm.
Legal Responsibilities
Obey the law
Law is society’s codification of right and wrong
Play by the rules of the game
Economic Responsibilities
Be profitable
The foundation upon which all others rest
Source: Caroll (1991)
Figure 1: Carroll´s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility

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- The Economic Responsibilities are the first and foremost social responsibilities of a
business organization, the foundation upon which all other rest. Any business
institution has the responsibility to produce goods and services the society wants and
to sell them at an (acceptable) profit. As in the words of Carroll, “The economic
responsibility component of the pyramid constitutes the fundamental reason corporate
organizations exist.” That is to maximize shareholders value whiles remaining
competitive within the market they operate, without which a company cannot and will
not survive. The economic components of CSR are: to perform in a manner consistent
with maximizing earnings per share; to be committed to being as profitable as
possible; to maintain a strong competitive position; to maintain a high level of
operating efficiency; to be consistently profitable in order to achieve a successful
position on the market.
 The Legal Responsibilities are strictly co-related with the economic ones and they reflect
the society’s expectations regarding businesses to fulfil their economic mission within the
framework of legal requirements. In other words, although firms seek to maximize
shareholders value, all businesses must ensure they operate within the rules and regulation
of their host countries. The most important legal components of CSR are: to perform in a
manner consistent with expectations of government and law; to comply with various state
and local regulations; to be a law-abiding corporate citizen; to be defined as one that
fulfils its legal obligations in order to be successful; to provide goods and services that at
least meet minimal legal requirements.
 The Ethical Responsibilities of a company embrace those activities and practices that are
expected or prohibited by societal members even though they are not codified into law. A
business organization has the obligation to avoid harm and to do what is right, just, and
fair. Carroll emphasizes that most often the legal requirements are derivatives of ethical
aspect of CSR which then becomes written law. A company has to take into account also
the ethical components of its activity: to perform in a manner consistent with expectations
of societal mores and ethical norms; to recognize and respect new or evolving ethical /
moral norms adopted by society; to prevent ethical norms from being compromised in
order to achieve corporate goals; to do what is expected morally or ethically in order to

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become good corporate citizen; to recognize that corporate integrity and ethical behaviour
that goes beyond mere compliance with laws and regulations.
 The Discretionary / Philanthropic Responsibilities are those about which society has no
clear-cut message for business – they are left to individual judgment and choice, but
business is expected to contribute financial and human resources to the community and to
improve the quality of life. Carroll explains it more by defining it as mainly, activities
corporate organizations engage in so as to be perceived as “good corporate citizen. The
philanthropic responsibility is not required by law or interested parties. It is the means by
which companies increase their reputation and goodwill (Carroll, 1991). The philanthropic
components of CSR are: to perform in a manner consistent with the philanthropic and
charitable expectations of society; to assist the fine and performing arts; to engage
managers and employees in voluntary and charitable activities within their local
communities; to provide assistance to private and public educational institutions; to assist
voluntarily in those projects that enhance a community’s quality of life.
1.1.3 Evolution of Corporate Social responsibility

The concept of corporate social responsibility has a long history associated with how it
impacts on organisational behaviour. It is therefore necessary to comprehend its progression,
thus, we will trace the conceptual evolution of CSR. The 1950s was the starting point, the
primary focus was on businesses responsibility to society and doing good deeds for society.
They were centered on the obligations of the businesses towards to achieving the desired
objectives and values for society. In the 1960s, CSR became more than just economic and
legal requirements. The question about the reasons for corporations to take social
responsibility came up. Key events, people and ideas were instrumental in characterizing the
social changes ushered in during this decade. After the 1960s, the literature on CSR developed
considerably and in that time it was defined as the new concept of social responsibility which
recognizes the intimacy of the relationships between the corporation and the society with a
realization that such relationships must be kept in mind by the top managers of the
corporation and the related groups for the overall betterment of the society. In the 1970s,
business managers applied traditional management functions when dealing with CSR issues,
while, in the 1980s, business and social interest came closer and firms became more
responsive to their stakeholders. CSR activities increase reputations of the corporations,

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which moreover increase the confidence of the consumers on the products and services of
those companies. As a result, the profitability increases too.
During the 1990s the idea of CSR became almost universally approved, also CSR was
coupled with strategy literature. The most momentous happening within CSR in the 90’s is
probably Carroll’s (1991) development of the CSR pyramid (See Figure 1). And finally in the
2000s, CSR became definitively an important strategic issue. There was a boom of research
testing new CSR relations and an environmental focus. During the 21th century, the focus of
the environmental aspect of CSR grew even stronger and society’s increased interest
regarding environmental issues put new light on CSR. Hence, even higher pressure was put
on corporations and their initiatives for support of the environment.
In the beginning of the 21th century the focus on CSR among corporations increased
tremendously. From now on it was expected that companies are actively involved in CSR
activities, rather than that it's a particular distinctive company attribute. Another proof of the
increasing involvement in CSR is that many firms at this time began to publish annual CSR
reports, or dedicate sections of their usual annual reports to mention the development and
result of their CSR activities.
Another trend emerging in the 21th century was the focus of CSR from a consumer
perspective. The fact that corporations started to work and participate actively in projects
regarding CSR predictably woke up an interest also among consumers. Researchers were then
eager to find out whether CSR activities had any influence on consumers or not, and if so, in
what way and to what extent.
Finally, another relatively new trend within CSR developed in the 21th century is to view and
utilize the whole concept as a competitive advantage. The figure below provides an overview
of the above described evolution of CSR.

14
Figure 2: The evolution of CSR
Source: Hugo van den Berg (2012)
1.2 The concept of Customer Loyalty and its antecedents

In this study, we aim to investigate the effect of CSR activities on customer loyalty. Therefore
it is important that we first define the construct of customer loyalty and later on determine its
antecedents. After these antecedents we can then evaluate the factors influencing customer
loyalty.
1.2.1 Definition of Customer Loyalty

The concept of customer loyalty and its importance in contemporary business is widely
acknowledged and pursued by corporate executives. The concept has also been widely
researched and as a result has received many definitions and interpretations in marketing
literature. Nonetheless, a clear conceptual and operational definition is not available.
Chaffey (2008) defined consumer loyalty as a desire on the part of the customer to continue to
conduct business with a given company overtime. Kotler and Armstrong in their book
“Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumer Loyalty” use the idea of repetitive buying
patterns of a particular brand as an indication of consumer loyalty. This also includes a verbal
promotion of the currently used product or services by the incumbent consumer to others who
have yet to try a particular product or service (Kotler and Armstrong, 2008).
The concept of customer loyalty and its importance in contemporary business is widely
acknowledged and pursued by corporate executives. The concept has also been widely
researched and as a result has received many definitions and interpretations in marketing
literature. Nonetheless, a clear conceptual and operational definition is not available. At a
general level, however, customer loyalty is defined as “a deeply held commitment to rebuy or
repatronize a preferred product or service consistently in the future, despite situational
influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior” (Oliver,
1997:392). Loyalty is more than just a matter of repeated purchases; it is about the personal
belief the customer holds about a brand or product (Oliver, 1999).
Pan et al. (2011) defined customer loyalty as “the strength of a customer’s dispositional
attachment to a brand (or service) and his/her intent to rebuy the brand (or repatronize the
service) in the future”. By creating and maintaining customer loyalty, a company develops a

15
long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with its customers. It is a well-known fact that for
companies, the costs of retaining existing customers are much lower than those of attracting
new ones. Customer retention and loyalty are thus key issues on the management’s agenda.
Furthermore, with loyal customers, companies can maximize their profit by which these
customers are willing to purchase more frequently and spend money on trying new products
or services. Therefore, loyalty has been linked to a firm’s success and profitability (Eakuru &
Mat, 2008).
1.2.2 The antecedents of customer loyalty

In order to measure the concept of customer loyalty and, in this study, the effects of CSR
activities on customer loyalty, we first identify the primary available antecedents of customer
loyalty, which we divide in two components: attitudinal and behavioural.
For decades, there has been ample interest in the fundamental questions regarding customer
loyalty and its driving forces. An essential first step in investigating the issue is to determine
how customer loyalty is measured. The significant relevance of this topic in business research
has led to a myriad of studies and empirical data. However, there seems to be a lack of
consensus in these findings. One of the primary sources of the disparity in customer loyalty
research is the conceptualization and operationalizations of the loyalty construct itself. Most
studies attempt to measure customer loyalty by using behavioural dimensions such as
purchase intentions, price sensitivity and word-of-mouth communication. This is because
attitudinal measures, such as the perceived value of a product, are often considered to be the
antecedents of customer loyalty. However, other authors suggest that an attitude-behaviour
relationship (an integration of both behavioural and attitudinal components) can make an
integrated study of customer loyalty possible.
1.2.2.1 Attitudinal loyalty
Attitudinal loyalty means consumers’ sense of specific products or service. That is, a
consumer’s identification with a particular service provider and preference of a product or
service over alternatives. Attitudinal loyal customers do have a certain (emotional)
relationship with the brand and this type of loyalty is considered to be much stronger and
longer lasting. Important for the endurance of attitudinal loyalty is that the customer values
this relationship and puts effort in attempting to maintain the relationship with the brand.
1.2.2.2 Behavioural Loyalty

16
Behavioral loyalty means consumers’ repurchase behavioral or intension of specific brand.

Behaviourally loyal customers act loyal but do not have an emotional (attitudinal) relationship
with the brand. This kind of loyalty is referred to as false loyalty or simply behavioural
loyalty. Behavioural loyalty can further be segmented into forced loyalty, loyalty caused by
inertia or functional loyalty. Customers that are forced to be clients when they actually do not
want to be, act out of forced loyalty. For example, contractual obligations, one’s financial
limitations or monopolistic companies, may cause forced loyalty. Inertia can also be a source
of loyalty, where the customer does not want to move from one brand to another due to
comfort or a general lack of importance of doing so. A lack of information about alternative
choices (characteristics of other brands) may also be a cause of inertia. Lastly, functional
loyalty is motivated by an objective reason to be loyal, such as product price, quality,
availability etc.
Measurement of customer loyalty should be based on the behavioural concept that is

more common than the attitudinal concept in research practice. The popularity of this
dimension has been determined not only by the weaknesses of attitudinal loyalty but also by
the influence of behavioural loyalty on the income and profit of an organisation. In addition,
behavioural loyalty matches the particularities of services. It is sufficiently informative,
objective and reasonable regarding the aspect of available data. Despite the superiority of
behavioural loyalty over attitudinal loyalty, loyalty measurement is not and cannot be isolated
from the customer attitude.
Behavioural loyalty indirectly integrates attitudinal loyalty since loyal behaviour is impossible
without a customer-friendly attitude towards an organisation and its services. After the
formation of appropriate intentions and their active mode, attitudinal loyalty turns into
behavioural loyalty, or otherwise into the result of attitudinal loyalty. The arguments
mentioned above leave no doubt about the issue of selecting the
concept of loyalty; unambiguously, it is the behavioural loyalty together with the influence of
attitudinal loyalty, which becomes evident during the loyalty formation
1.2.3 Factors influencing the evaluation of Customer Loyalty

1.2.3.1 Customer satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is determined by customer perception following a service or purchase

evaluation, customers form emotional perspectives toward a product. Anderson et al. (1994)

17
suggest that overall customer satisfaction is based primarily on the experience and satisfaction
while purchasing merchandise or services: it is both an emotional evaluation and a process of
comparison between a “pre-consumption expectation” and the “post-consumption perceived
performance”. Customer satisfaction is the most widely discussed independent variable in
studies on customer loyalty. Bei and Chiao (2001) interviewed 495 customers across 15
service departments at Mitsubishi, Nissan and Toyota dealers. The results suggested that the
higher the customer satisfaction, the higher the loyalty to the company. Improved customer
satisfaction will affect the likelihood of repeat purchases. Fornell et al. (1996) also
maintain that after a customer purchases a product or service, an attitude will be formed,
which is satisfaction. If satisfaction is high, the likelihood of repeat patronage is great. This
will create an attitudinal loyalty whereby the customer will recommend the product or service
through word of mouth. In other words, customer satisfaction has a positive impact on both
behavioral and attitudinal loyalty.
1.2.3.2 Service quality
Service quality is a customer’s evaluation of overall superiority of a service encounter; it is a

perceived, not objective, quality. The PZB model is most commonly used for evaluating
service quality. Parasuraman et al. (1988) refined the PZB model by subdividing it into five
aspects: Tangibility, Reliability, Responsiveness, Assurance, and Empathy. They created the
question service quality scale for the evaluation of a customer’s expected service quality and
his/her perceived service quality. This SERVQUAL model has been widely used in various
service industry studies. Most studies maintain that customer satisfaction is based primarily
on service quality. Bolton and Drew (1991) claim that service quality is the antecedent of
customer satisfaction. This study also classifies service quality as an antecedent variable of
customer satisfaction.
1.2.3.3 Corporate Image
Corporate image is a consumer’s perception of a corporate entity. This image will remain in a
consumer’s mind further affecting purchase behaviors or intentions. By means of the
products, services and related information, consumers develop a subjective appraisal of a
corporation, thus forming a corporate image. Josee and Gaby (2002) defined corporate image
as a society’s overall impression, including the interaction between physical and invisible
elements. Corporate image has significant influence on customer loyalty and plays a key role
in customer retention. Josee and Gaby (2002) used 357 European supermarket chain
18
customers as subjects and determined that corporate image affects loyalty, they also proved
that corporate image influences purchase decisions; the better a corporate image, the greater
both the purchase frequency and dollar amount spent. In this study, a “corporate image”
variable is included in the customer loyalty model in order to determine if this psychological
variable exhibits differences when it comes to affecting behavioral and attitudinal loyalty.
1.2.3.4 Switching Costs
Switching cost can make it difficult or expensive for customers to switch service providers.
When customers are considering switching service providers, they evaluate both the benefits
and the costs; when required costs are higher than gained benefits (meaning an excessively
high switching cost) an exit barrier is created, thus decreasing the possibility of switching.
Therefore, switching costs play an important role when a customer considers changing service
providers. Studies indicate that perceived switching cost is an important factor when it comes
to customer loyalty. Many case studies reveal that an unsatisfied customer may
continue with the same vendor only because he/she believes that extra time and effort spent
on switching, will be costly. In this study, a switching cost variable is included in the
customer loyalty model in order to determine if this substantial variable exhibits differences
when it comes to affecting behavioral and attitudinal loyalty.

19
CHAPTER 2:
THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK OF
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CUSTOMER
LOYALTY
This chapter presents the theoretical and empirical framework that will be used to carry out
the study. Section 1 considers in detail CSR and customer loyalty theories, and section 2 will
show empirical literature that was used in the study and the econometric model specification.
2.1 Theoretical framework of corporate social responsibility and customer

loyalty.
In this section we shall present the corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty
theories that were used to build our research. Since there is a great heterogeneity of theories
and approaches of CSR, discussion in this study is based on a comprehensive analysis of
several theories.
2.1.1 The conceptual relationship between corporate social responsibility and customer
loyalty
Corporate social responsibility can be utilize to enhance customer behavioural and attitudinal
loyalty. Often customer loyalty is used as opposed to brand loyalty to emphasise that loyalty
is a feature of people, rather than something inherent in brands. In a study conducted by
Saunders (2006), it is found that the percentage of consumers who are more likely to
recommend a brand that supports a good cause over the one that does not is 52%. Meanwhile,
55% of consumers contend that in a recession they will buy from brands that support good
causes even if they are not necessarily the cheapest. Companies that have made CSR a central
part of their businesses are reaping the benefits in the form of company sustainability,
reducing liabilities, and insurance costs, as well as improved brand image (Saunders, 2006).
customer loyalty and CSR has become a useful tool in this regard. However, the relationship

20
between CSR and customer loyalty remains largely unexplored (Liu and Zhou, 2010).
Chaffey (2008) defined consumer loyalty as a desire on the part of the customer to continue to
conduct business with a given company overtime. Kotler and Armstrong in their book “
Corporate Social Responsibility and Consumer Loyalty “ use the idea of repetitive buying
patterns of a particular brand as an indication of consumer loyalty. This also includes a verbal
promotion of the currently used product or services by the incumbent consumer to others who
have yet to try a particular product or service (Kotler and Armstrong, 2008).
Attitudinal
CSR Activities loyalty
Educational
initiatives CUSTOMER
LOYALTY
Environmental
initiatives
Social initiatives Behavioural

Health initiatives loyalty
Source : author’s conception(2019)
Figure 3 : Interconnectedness of concepts
2.1.2 Stakeholder Theory of CSR

The stakeholder theory holds the view that firms have a responsibility to satisfy the interests
of their diverse constituents, referred to as stakeholders. Stakeholders according to Freeman
(2004) are “those groups who are vital to the survival and success of the organization”. In
other words the actions or inaction of these groups can make or unmake an organization.
Friedman and Miles (2006) emphasizes therefore that, the efforts of organizations should be
aimed at managing the interest, needs and viewpoints of these groups. Henriques and
Sadorsky (1999) identified four main categories of stakeholders likely to show concern for the
impacts of corporate activities. These categories include organizational, community,
regulatory and media stakeholders. Organizational stakeholders are “those who are directly
related to an organization and have the ability to impact its bottom line directly” (Henriques
and Sadorsky1999). These may include 35 customers, employees, shareholders and suppliers
21
(Clarkson, 1995). These groups are absolutely essential to the success and survival of the
firm, both in the short and long term. Community stakeholders include environmental and
human rights defense groups, along with other potential activists present in the areas where
the firm operates. The regulatory stakeholders group is made of Governments, trade
associations, and competitors. In a nutshell, the stakeholders’ perspective according to
(Maignan et. al., 1999) requires businesses to address the responsibilities placed on them by
their stakeholders. It is therefore ethical for companies to be fair or just by giving acceptable
treatment to their customers.
2.1.3 The Triple Bottom Line Theory

Another famous concept evolving during the 20th century was Elkington’s (1998) Triple
Bottom Line, focusing on three issues; social responsibility (people), environmental
responsibility (planet), and economic responsibility (profit). The aim of the concept is to
measure the financial as well as the social and environmental performance of organizations.
Consequently, this concept brought a new aspect to the discussion and development of CSR;
the environmental issue. From now on, a socially responsible company was not only
responsible for creating economic and social value for the society. Now, the corporations
were also expected to care about and protect the environment (Slaper & Hall, 2011;
Elkington, 1998). Many other researchers began to develop this new aspect of CSR. A few of
them were Neu et al. (1998), who based their study on three different issues including the
influence of external pressure on environmental disclosures in annual reports (including the
amount and types of strategies used in disclosure), the characteristics of environmental
disclosure in comparison to other social disclosures and finally the association between
environmental disclosures and the actual performance of corporations.

22
2.1.4 Garriga and Mele’s Analysis

Garriga and Mele’s (2004) analysis maps CSR into four types of theories. They are
better explained on the table below.
Table 1: Garriga and Mele’s theories and related approaches

Types of Theories Approaches Short description
 Maximisation of  Long term value of
Instrumental theories shareholder value maximisation
(Focusing on achieving  Strategies for  Social investment in a
economic objectives competitive advantage competitive context
through social activities)  Cause-related  Altruistic activities socially
marketing recognised as a marketing tool
 Social responsibilities of
 Corporate businesses arise from the social
constitutionalism power the firms have.
Political theories
 Assumes that a social contract
(focusing on a responsible
 Integrative social between business and society
use of business power in
contract exists
the political arena)
 The firm is understood as being
 Corporate citizenship like a citizen with certain
involvement in the community
 Management issues  Corporate response to social
and political issues
 Public responsibility  Law and the existing public
policy process are taken as
Integrative theories  Stakeholder reference for social
management performance
 Searches for social legitimacy
 Corporate social and process to give appropriate
performance responses to social issues
 Based on human rights, labour
 Universal rights rights and respect for the
Ethical theories environment
(focusing on the right thing  Sustainable  Aimed at achieving human
to achieve a good society) development development considering the
present and future generations
 The common good  Oriented towards the common
23
good of society
Source: Garriga and Mele (2004)
2.1.5 Dynamic Model of Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty has been heavily segmented in behavioural theory literature. The different
views on loyalty allow for a distinction between a stochastic, deterministic and composite
approach. A review of the literature brings out these three ways to define loyalty. First, there
is the stochastic approach, which is purely behavioural. Then, there is the deterministic
approach that considers loyalty as an attitude. Lastly, a combination of these approaches is
called composite loyalty. Through these dimensions, loyalty is said to evolve from the act of
purchase, to customer satisfaction, to customer trust, to customer commitment to finally
customer loyalty (Chaudhuri & Holbrook, 2001).
True loyalty incorporates two forms of loyalty, a composite, resulting in consistent attitudes
and behaviours of loyalty and is called intentional loyalty. It is important to note that
intentional loyalty is both emotional and behavioural, but is not driven by force, inertia or
functionality. The figure below demonstrates the dynamic model of customer loyalty, which
provides an overview of both the behavioral and attitudinal construct of customer loyalty.
Act of Purchase Behavioural Dimension
Customer Satisfaction
Customer Loyalty
Customer Trust
Attitudinal Dimension
Customer commitment
Source: Adopted by researcher (2019)

24
Figure 4: The dynamic model of customer loyalty
Behaviourally loyal customers act loyal but do not have an emotional (attitudinal) relationship
with the brand. This kind of loyalty is referred to as false loyalty or simply behavioural
loyalty. Behavioural loyalty can further be segmented into forced loyalty, loyalty caused by
inertia or functional loyalty. Customers that are forced to be clients when they actually do not
want to be, act out of forced loyalty. For example, contractual obligations, one’s financial
limitations or monopolistic companies, may cause forced loyalty. Inertia can also be a source
of loyalty, where the customer does not want to move from one brand to another due to
comfort or a general lack of importance of doing so. A lack of information about alternative
choices (characteristics of other brands) may also be a cause of inertia. Lastly, functional
loyalty is motivated by an objective reason to be loyal, such as product price, quality,
availability etc. (Wernerfelt, 1991).
Attitudinal loyal customers do have a certain (emotional) relationship with the brand and this
type of loyalty is considered to be much stronger and longer lasting. Important for the
endurance of attitudinal loyalty is that the customer values this relationship and puts effort in
attempting to maintain the relationship with the brand (Morgan & Hunt, 1995).
2.2 Empirical Literature on Corporate Social Responsibility and customer

loyalty
Nevertheless, there are also studies revealing a positive correlation between CSR and
customer loyalty;
De los Salmones et al. (2005) measured the direct and indirect relationship between CSR and
customer loyalty in the mobile telephone industry. The results revealed that there was a
significant direct relation between the two variables. However, CSR appeared to have a
significant influence on consumers' valuation services and since the overall service valuation
turned out to have a strong positive correlation to customer loyalty, it was concluded that CSR
indirectly influences customer loyalty.
In 2010, Liu et al. also performed a study on the perceived CSR and customer loyalty based
on the dairy market in China. The results from the regression analysis showed that product
quality, trust, image and satisfaction have a positive influence on customer loyalty, hence

25
there was a significant direct correlation between CSR and customer loyalty. Since the
authors have identified the impact of perceived CSR on the other four factors in the regression
analysis, they although concluded that the perceived CSR might have an impact on customer
loyalty.
In their literature review, Simcic Brønn & Belliu Vrioni (2001) refer to a study stating that
cause-related marketing might be used as a tool for corporations to increase customer loyalty
and build reputation (Stewart, 1998, cited in Simcic Brønn & Belliu Vrioni, 2001).
In a study conducted in 2007, Du et al examined the moderating influence of the extent to

which a brand's social initiatives are integrated into its competitive positioning on consumer
reactions to CSR. The authors revealed that consumers tend to have more favourable beliefs
and reward CSR brands to a greater extent, in terms of relational behaviours, such as loyalty
and advocacy. The results showed that consumers of a brand are more likely to identify with
the brand, be loyal to the brand, as well as engage in advocacy behaviours for the brand (i.e.,
willing to try new products, engage in favourable word-of-mouth) when it is a CSR brand
than when it is not.
A new national survey titled, “The Cost of Poor Customer Service: The Economic Impact of
the Customer Experience,” by Genesys Telecommunication Laboratory revealed that roughly
73% of customers ended a relationship in the United Kingdom due to a poor customer service
experience. While surveying over 514 customers based in the United Kingdom, Genesys also
found that it’s the younger generation of customers that are more likely to leave their service
providers behind, versus older customers who are more set in their service provider ways. The
study reported that the average value of each lost relationship is £248, or about $394, per year,
for a total of £15.3 billion, or $24.3 billion, a major figure in today’s unstable economic times.
Only 39% of U.K. consumers said that it is critical for companies to provide more intelligent
self-service so they are not trapped in unproductive automated systems. Therefore, customers
especially the younger demographic prefer speaking to a live customer representative, and a
friendly one at that, when calling for a service issue or question. And, with 83% of consumers
welcoming a more proactive engagement approach as a way to improve their experiences,
companies need to perfect their customer service.
According to the data, consumer satisfaction increases when companies meet four key needs:
competency, convenience, proactive engagement and personalization. Keith Pearce, senior

26
director of EMEA Marketing at Genesys, said that most businesses understand that turning
the customer experience into an emotional engagement adds value to their brain and results in
consumers who are more loyal and satisfied.
A study conducted by He and Lai (2012) concluded that functional and symbolic images
portrayed through CSR enhanced brand loyalty. Carroll (1979) who also did some work on
consumer perception of CSR pioneered the dimensionalisation of CSR by ranking economic,
legal, ethical and discretionary practices as the motivators behind CSR.
Findings of an article on corporate social responsibility from the consumers’ perspective in a

Chinese setting provide evidence to show that Chinese consumers are more supportive of
CSR. It also showed that Carroll’s pyramid of responsibilities can be applied in China. The
study also evaluated the importance placed by Chinese consumers on the four responsibilities
of firms: economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic, and finds that economic responsibilities
are most important while philanthropic responsibilities are of least importance. The nature of
these differences is important for firms intending to use corporate social responsibility for
strategic purposes (Ramasamy & Yeung, 2009).
A similar study by Isabelle Maignan (2011) in her article “Consumers' Perceptions of

Corporate Social Responsibilities: A Cross-Cultural Comparison” conducted a consumer
survey in France, Germany, and the U.S. The study investigated consumers' readiness to
support socially responsible organizations and examined their evaluations of the economic,
legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities of the firm. French and German consumers
appeared more willing to actively support responsible businesses than their U.S. counterparts.
While U.S. consumers valued highly corporate economic responsibilities, French and German
consumers were most concerned about businesses conforming to legal and ethical standards.
These findings provide useful guidance for the efficient management of social responsibility
initiatives across borders and for further academic inquiries.
Another study on CSR and Perception of telecommunication industries in Bangladesh

revealed that 48% of respondents think mobile operators are maintaining CSR to highlight
their organizational activities, 20% believe that operators engage in CSR to promote business,
21% believe CSR should strengthen their positions in the corporate world while 15% believe
that the Telcos genuinely engage in CSR. Sarker (2014) Overall, the study suggests that CSR

27
is perceived by customers as a business tool adopted by these Telcos to ensuring the

maximum profit and enlargement of their organizations.
Rashid, Khalid, and Rahman (2015) examined whether CL is affected by three elements of
environmental CSR, those are; philanthropy, community services, and society well-being. The
study findings showed a positive relationship between each of community services, customer
well-being and CL. The study also revealed that e-CSR philanthropy didn’t show much
influence on CL.
Xu (2014) examined the relationship between CSR and CL in the fast food industry in China,
precisely within the customers of McDonald’s, by measuring five important aspects;
consumer’s dine-out behavior, expectations of CSR, perception of CSR, loyalty to and
satisfaction of McDonald’s customers and the demographics of the respondents. Xu found
that the fast food diners in China emphasized on two particular activities of CSR, which are
the human well-being and providing safe healthy/safe food, while other CSR activities were
less important to customers.
Chomvilailuk and Butcher (2014) carried out an insightful study in the banking industry, to
measure to which extent do both; service quality and CSR impact CL. The study treated and
addressed customer’s loyalty from a wider perspective, they referred to it as the loyalty
outcomes that included; purchase intentions, affective commitment, and word of mouth. CSR
was found to have a significant impact on both; word of mouth and purchasing intentions,
while the influence on the affective commitment was relatively small compared to the service
quality.
Martínez, and Del Bosque (2013) tested whether CL of hotels clients are impacted by CSR
activities of hotels in Spain and within the hospitality sector, the study highlighted customer
trust, customer satisfaction, and identification as mediating variables, and the results signified
that CSR does strongly relate to each of the mediating variables mentioned previously, which
in return enhances and improves CL.
Chen, Chang, and Lin (2012), investigated customers’ loyalty in relation to how they
observed CSR in Taiwan’s airlines market, the study found that CSR can firmly enhance CL
upon the control of relationship quality and that CSR within the airline industry, known as
Airline Social Responsibility (ASR) influences both behavioral and attitudinal loyalty.

28
Salmones, Perez and Del Bosque (2009) examined the Spanish financial sector by shedding
the light on ethical and philanthropic practices of CSR, numerous dimensions were tested
such as; relationship satisfaction, trust, identification with the firm, business performance,
relational outcomes and loyalty, the results showed positive indirect relationship between
CSR and CL through three critical dimensions; satisfaction, trust, and identification with the
organization.
Salmones, Crespo, and Del Bosque (2005) focused on the mobile phones in Spain, where
CSR was divided into three main categories; economic, ethical and philanthropic. Impact on
customer loyalty was measured through each of the previous elements, and it has been noticed
that each of them, except the economic dimension, positively influences the overall evaluation
of the service and accordingly CL. CSR has different impact on CL ranging from very strong
effect to no effect at all based on the dimensions tested and the market itself. Accordingly, it
is hard to determine how CSR would impact CL in the telecommunication sector in
Cameroon.
Econometric Model specification
The above theoretical and conceptual framework thus gives rise to the econometric model
specification. To study an economic phenomenon, we try to represent it by the behaviour of
variables, this economic variable can on its own depend on other variables which we use to
bring out a Mathematical relation.
The objective of a model is to represent the most important traits of a reality which the
researcher seeks to illustrate. From the perceived relationship between CSR and customer
loyalty, functional relationships and associated multiple regression models were specified for
CSR initiatives respectively:
The hypotheses with respect to CSR initiatives and attributes on customer loyalty were tested
with multiple regression analysis.
The equation of the model is formulated thus:
Customer Loyaltyᵢ = βₒ + β1EDUSIᵢ + β2ENVIᵢ + β3SOSIᵢ + β4HETHIᵢ + Eᵢ
where Customer loyaltyᵢ denotes the outcome variable, βₒ is the intercept and this value is
constant. β1 is the coefficient of the first predictor “educational initiatives”(one of the CSR

29
dimensions). β2 is the coefficient of the second predictor “environmental initiatives” (one of

the CSR dimensions). β3 is the coefficient of the third predictor “social initiatives” (one of the
CSR dimensions). β4 is the coefficient of the fourth predictor “health initiative” (one of the
CSR dimensions). Eᵢ is the difference between predicted and the observed value of Customer
Loyalty for the ἰth participant.
Apriori: β1 > 0, β 2 > 0, β3 > 0, and β4 > 0
This apriori is based on the stakeholder theory that, CSR supports the economic bottom line
of the company.

30
PART II:
METHODOLOGY USED IN ANALYSING CSR AND CUSTOMER
LOYALTY RELATIONS, DATA PRESENTATION AND
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
This part the research identified the procedures and techniques that were used in the
collection, processing and analysis of data. Specifically the following subsections were
included; research design, target population, sampling design, data collection instruments,
data collection procedures, data analysis and discussion as well as conclusion and policy
recommendations.

31
CHAPTER 3:
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY USED TO EVALUATE THE
VARIABLES
In order to have a successful and reliable research, emphasis was placed on the exact method
used in gathering the data and the best way the data would be assessed and analysed. Areas
covered included the research design, research approach, research strategy, population,
sample size & sampling techniques, data collection instrument, data analysis, reliability and
validity.
3.1 Presentation of the population, tools of collection and research design

In this section, we will present the scope/delimitation, research design, population, sample
size and sampling techniques, sources and methods of data collection, data collection
instrument, validation of research instrument, reliability of the research instrument. This
section identified the procedures and techniques that were used in the collection of data.
3.1.1 Scope/Delimitation of the study

For effective comprehension and coverage of the study, the researcher decided to carry out
this study in Cameroon. The choice of these research areas was to permit an effective
coverage of customers of mobile service operators. Respondents were drawn from five state
universities in the country that is Universities of Buea, Douala, Yaounde I, Dschang, and
Bamenda.
3.1.2 Accessible population, target population and sample of the study

The population under investigation is the totality of persons having attributes that correspond
to the objective of envisaged study and provide assistance in the verification of hypothesis.
For this research the accessible population will be all mobile service customers. The target
population is customers from five state universities. To capture the customer loyalty, the
exploratory and quantitative design was adopted for this study. A sample of 800 randomly
selected customers of selected telecom operators was drawn from five state universities in the
country that is: Universities of Buea, Douala, Yaounde I, Dschang, and Bamenda. This
relatively educated target was more appropriate because of their higher level of awareness and
appreciation of corporate social responsibility.

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3.1.3 Research design

According to Saunders et al (2009), there are two main research approaches: deduction and
induction. With deduction, a theory and hypothesis are developed and a research strategy
designed to test the hypothesis. Data analysis follows theory. With induction, data are
collected and a theory developed as a result of the data analysis. Theory follows data analysis.
This research adopted the hypothetico-deductive approach. The hypothetico-deductive model
or method is a proposed description of scientific method. According to it, scientific inquiry
proceeds by formulating a hypothesis in a form that could conceivably be falsified by a test on
observable data.
The main data used for this study was primary data. Primary data refers to data that has been
collected in the field by the researcher. In getting primary data there are several approaches
available to gathering data. In order to collect reliable and valid information, the researcher
used a questionnaire for the collection of primary data, which are considered reasonably
reliable. Secondary information was gotten from documents having relevance to the
realization of this study, that is, reports, text books and other publications.
3.1.4 Data collection Instrument

A structured questionnaire was prepared to elicit information on the perception of customers
with regards to the CSR activities of the selected Telecom operators. The questions were
prepared after intensive review of literature from journals, articles, books, official
publications, thesis reports, interviews, observations, and internet resources. The self-
completion questionnaire was designed and divided into two sections. Section A sought for
demographic data of the respondents; while Section B sought for data on relevant variables.
Section A was designed using closed-ended, open-ended and multiple choice response
structures; while section B was designed using the modified version of the Likert’s scale
ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” and scale from 1 to 4 i.e. 1 = Strongly
Disagree (SD), 2 = Disagree (D), 3 = Neutral (N), 4= Agree (A), and 5 = Strongly Agree (SA)
using relevant CSR variables. The data obtained in Section A was analysed using descriptive
statistics while section B was analysed using the multiple regression model. The
questionnaires which consisted of both categorical and scale type question items were used to
gather the information on the perceptions of the respondents on the CSR activities of the
selected companies. Samples can be found in appendices.

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3.1.5 Validation of research instrument

According to Yakubu & Agbor (2001) validation of instrument describes the procedures
adopted in ensuring that the instrument used has measure what it was designed to measure.
Validity is considered the most important criteria for the quality of a test. It comprises face
and content validity.
Face validity: The face validity was carried out after the researcher personally drafted the
research instrument (questionnaire) base on literature and sub-variables of this research or
better still the research objectives. The instrument was presented to peers, the research
supervisor, some lecturers in the University of Dschang and University of Bamenda. The
items of the instrument were scrutinized, corrections and modification made to ensure that
items tie with research objectives and free from bias. This step took care of the face validity.
3.1.6 Reliability of research instrument

Reliability of instrument is the degree to which the instrument consistently measures what it is
expected to measure or is supposed to measure Amin (2005). Reliability is an indicator of a
measure’s internal consistency; a measure is reliable when the different items in the
instrument show a similarly consistent result (Zikmund, 2010). Kumar (2011) points out that
in social science, the research instrument is affected by factors such as the wording of
questions, physical aspects, the respondent’s and interviewer’s mood. The alpha coefficient
method was used. Cronbach’s alpha is the degree to which instrument items are homogeneous
and reflect the same underlying construct (Cooper & Schindler, 2006). Bryman and Bell
(2011) suggest a minimum alpha value of 0.70 for reliability purposes. The aim at this stage
was to assess the suitability of the research tool for the task in question. Using Cronbach’s
coefficient the researcher analysed the reliability with alpha values ranging from 0.725 to
0.825 which indicate high coefficients of reliability. (see appendix)
To ascertain validity and reliability of the research instruments, the questions were pre-tested
using a selected sample to eliminate questions that were not clear. The research instrument
was tested using the Multi-collinearity which is a phenomenon in which two or more
predictor variables in a multiple regression model are highly correlated, meaning that one can
be linearly predicted from the others with a substantial degree of accuracy. On the other hand,

34
the validity of the questionnaire was ensured by having all the objective questions included in
it so that the analysis of the data actually represents the phenomenon under study.
3.1.7 Ethical Issues

Ethics has been described as system of morals, rules, standards and behaviours. Research
ethics present researchers with a code of moral guidelines on how to perform research in a
morally acceptable way (Struwing & Stead, 2001). Such guidelines aim to prevent researchers
from engaging in scientific misconduct, for instance: distortions and inventing data,
plagiarism, republishing secondary data as original contribution without proper
acknowledgement, failure to uphold the confidentiality of research respondents and
participants, poor and ineffective conduct of a study, unrepresentative data sample and falsely
reporting results (Saunders et al, 2003).
Every human institution has a number of ethical issues to observe. Disclosing the
confidentiality of the information collected from interviewees is among several ethical issues.
These were addressed by first explaining the significance of the study to the respondents and
ensuring that their personal data that could bring out their respective identities were not
disclosed in the data collected. The participants engaged in this study were given a brief
background of the study so that they appreciate their individual roles in the data collection
activity so as to find answers to the research questions. The respondents were encouraged to
take part in the process willingly and were given the option to opt out in case it would be an
inconvenience in any way.
3.2 Operationalization, description and measurement of variables

We shall present the nature of the variables that is the dependent which is customer loyalty
and independent variable which is corporate social responsible initiatives.
3.2.1 Description of variables

1. Environmental activities
These activities bothered on activities of telecom companies that prevent harm to the
environment and the participation of telecom companies to keep the environment clean which
included: Reforestation of the Northern regions where 250 000 trees have been planted in
partnership with WWF with a 75% survival rate of the trees planted; Drilling of bore holes
to provide potable water to roughly 100 000 people in the Adamawa, Centre and West
Regions and Far North regions. Sponsorship of clean up exercise. Supporting teaching
35
primary school students the importance of recycling as effective way of disposing plastic
waste.
2. Social activities
A corporation provides funds, in-kind contributions, or other corporate resources to increase
awareness and concern about a social cause or to support fundraising, participation, or
volunteer recruitment for a cause. The sponsoring of arts and cultural events, the development
of talents through television shows; MTN and Orange both offer yearly entertainment
concerts to their subscribers. They are also engaged in the sponsoring of sporting events like
the university games and football tournaments.
3. Educational activities
The statements on education bothered on support for school buildings, learning aid and
educational scholarships which includes installation in schools of multimedia centres, support
of University games. Another CSR focus area examined here is economic empowerment. The
statements bothered on issues relating to provision of economic opportunities, development of
talents and economic empowerment of the vulnerable in society for instance, MTN sponsors
incubation programs for business start ups; Orange empowers underprivileged women
through vocational trainings; they both give employment through their brand ambassador
programs. CAMTEL started the CAMAGRo agropastoral program to empower local
communities.
4. Health activities
The statements on health examined areas such as construction and renovation of hospital
facilities, donation of health equipment, and sponsorship of health screening/counselling and
awareness for HIV/AIDS and drug use. Construction of maternities and reinforcement of
medical equipment of hospitals in Cameroon; Distribution of long-lasting insecticidal nets to
15 000 families in the 10 regions of the country; Creation of a haemodialysis hall at the
Yaounde General Hospital to improve the follow-up of patients suffering from renal
insufficiency; Contribution to construct a specialized unit for sickle cell patients at the Douala
LAQUINTINIE hospital.
3.2.1. Operationalization of concepts and variables
The table below further expantiates on the CSR activities and the interconectedness with the
antecedents of customer loyalty.

36
Table 2: Operationalization of concepts and variables

Concepts Variables
 Planting of trees and reforestation
Environmental
 Clean up campaigns
activities
 Drilling of boreholes for portable water
 Sponsoring Arts events
Social initiatives  Sponsoring cultural initiatives
 Sponsoring sporting events
 Scholarships
Corporate social
 Information Technology.
responsibility Educational
 Business incubators
activities (CSR) initiatives
 Brand ambassadors
 HIV awareness and screening programmes

 Construction and renovation of hospitals
Health initiatives  Provision of hospital equipment
 Sponsoring vaccination and disease
awareness campaigns
Behavioural loyalty
Attitudinal loyalty
Customer Loyalty
 Customer satisfaction, Percieved service quality, Brand
(CL)
image, and Commitment
Source: Author’s conception (2019)
3.2.2 Measurement of variables

1. Techniques of data analysis
Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 22 was established to record all data
collected in the aggregate form so as to protect anonymity. The first set of data was
descriptive in nature while the second set used inferential statistics to verify the hypothesis.
Since this study is exploratory in nature, the Ordinary Least Squares technique was applied to
get the estimates for the various variables in the multiple regression model above. The quality
of the various estimates was ascertained through the use of various tests. The significance of
the estimates was ascertained with the use of t-statistics, the F –statistics was applied to
ascertain the overall significance of the study. Being a cause-benefit analysis, there was need
to ascertain the existence causality between the various stimuli (different dimensions of
corporate social responsibility activities) and the response. This was achieved with the
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Granger Causality test. Also, the Durbin Watson (D-W) test was applied to test for the
presence of Auto/serial correlation. R squared adjusted was applied to ascertain the fitness of
the data.
2. Estimation and validation of the techniques

As statistical tools, descriptive analysis was used to present the demographic variables;
Statistics package used to make analysis was IBM SPSS 22. The multiple regression models
can be used to make predictions about the dependent variable. It is used when we want to
predict the value of a variable based on the value of two or more other variables. The variable
we want to predict is called the dependent variable or sometimes, (the outcome, target or
criterion variable). The variables we are using to predict the value of the dependent variable
are called the independent variables or sometimes, (the predictor, explanatory or regression
variables). The multiple linear regressions which are used to show the linear combination
among the variables and test that can be used to verify the hypotheses at 0.05 (5%) level of
significance are:
- The R square (R2) or R square adjusted

One way to measure the overall predictive accuracy of a multiple regression model is the R
square value. The interpretation of R-square is: "The amount of variance in the dependent
variable that can be explained by the model." If the R-square value is 1.0, this means the
model explains 100% of the variance and so the model will produce perfect predictive
accuracy. This never happens in the real world though. The point is, the closer to 1.0 the R
square value is, the better the model. The closer the R-square value is to 0, the worse the
model. The R square, the coefficient of determination is statistical coefficient computed from
the data of the sample which shows the total variation of the dependent variable being
explained by the joint variation of the explanatory variables specified in the model, that is it
measures the proportion of the variance in dependent variable explained by all the
independent variables in the model.
- The Student statistic (T-test)

The t statistic is used to justify whether the coefficients of the estimated parameters are
statistically significant at a certain degree of freedom.

38
- The F statistic
The Fisher test ensures the quality of the model to adequately represent the phenomenon
under study. It is carried out on the basis of the coefficient of determination R 2.we first chose
a significance level, and then we look for the calculated value of the statistic using the
formula:
This value is compared to the value read in the table of Fisher (k-1, n-k-1) degrees of freedom
that is it shows the degree of reliability of the result.

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CHAPTER 4:
PRESENTATION OF ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
This chapter presents the analysis of the field data collected and interpreted to answer the
research questions for this study. The analysis presented in this chapter was performed using
data collected in the months of April, May and June 2019. The chapter is organised in two
sections. The first section is the presentation of the descriptive statistics and interpretation of
results. The second section is the summary of findings.
4.1 Presentation and interpretation of results

In this section, data collected in the field through the survey will be presented in forms of
tables and interpreted.
4.1.1 Descriptive statistics of demographic information of the participants
Informations will be presented here in form of tables based on data collected by the researcher
through a survey test.
Out of the 800 instruments administered, 703 were returned resulting in a response rate of
87.9% of the returned questionnaires, 623 (77. 87%) questionnaires were correctly filled and
used for this study. The analysis revealed that 342(54.9%) of the respondents were male while
281(45.1%) were female. Also, 423 (67.89%) of the respondents were familiar with corporate
social responsibility and understood the concept of CSR. The consistency ratios of all the
pair-wise comparison matrices were less than 0.1 hence the judgments of the respondents
were all seen to be consistent and therefore acceptable.
Table 3: Presentation of the demographic profile of respondents

Gender of respondents
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Male 342 54.9 54.9 54.9
Valid Female 281 45.1 45.1 100.0
Total 623 100.0 100.0
Source: Field survey (2019)
From table above, it is observe that among the 623 respondents used in the research work, 342
(54,9%) of them were male while 281 (45,1%) were female, this shows that majority of the
respondents were males.

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Figure 5: Presentation of age description of respondents

Figure 5 above represents the distribution of the respondents according to age groups and it
shows that majority of them were between the age range of 20-29 years. This can be attributed
to the fact that the population was university campuses. However, 18.0 % of them were
between the ages of 30 and 39 years. Again, 14 % of the respondents fall between the ages of
40-49 years, while 5% of the respondents are over 50 years. It could easily be seen that
majority of the respondents were around the age of 20-29 years.
This particular population was chosen because of their literate and educational background.
We realised that corporate social responsibility is not a well-known concept. So we needed a
population that is very much aware of the concept and its antecedents as well its application in
the community. That is why a high percentage of respondents were graduates (33%), followed
by undergraduates 28% and postgraduate 24%. The researcher tried to administer to those
who were aware of the influence of the said variables.

41
Figure 6: Presentation of the longevity of telephone usage of the respondents

Figure 6 above, shows the longevity of telephone usage of the respondents. The results show
that out of 623 respondents, 297 had below 5 years of longivity of telephone usage covering
the highest percentage of 47,67%. Moreover, 45,91% of the respondents had between 6-10
years of longevity of telephone usage, and just 6,42% of the respondents had between 11-15
years of longivity of telephone usage.
Looking at the role of demographics, it was found that the gender element doesn’t actually
contribute or moderate the impact of CSR on CL, similarly age was found to be irrelevant in
terms of influencing the impact of CSR on CL, however customers with higher levels of
income were found to be more sensitive to CSR activities in terms of their loyalty, lastly it
was revealed that even though the educational level is a critical demographic aspect, it didn’t
really moderate the relationship between CSR and CL. The CSR activities that seemed to gain
more interest and higher attention are those activities falling under the educational and social
42
umbrella, health and environmental aspects are being noticed as well but not on the same
level as the previously mentioned categories. Accordingly, CSR categories that acquired less
attention shall need more efforts from both providers in terms of educating customers and
increasing their awareness. In terms of loyalty, customers tend to have high level of loyalty to
their providers, with high tendency to recommend their Telecommunication providers to
others and positively talk about them, which is considered a positive strategy. In addition, the
tendency of conducting a repurchase was relatively high and which is sort of behavioral
loyalty that organizations normally seek (Kaur & Soch, 2012) and an index to strong loyalty
that organizations normally aspire.
4.1.2 Descriptive statistics of corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty

Here, informations will be presented in the table will show the descriptive statistics of every
studied corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty variables according to the data
collected by the researcher on mobile telephone users’ perception on corporate social
responsibility and customer loyalty.
Figure 7: Presentation of descriptive statistics on Educational initiatives
The figure above shows the actual numbers and the percentages of responses giving by
participants on questions concerning educational initiatives.

43
Educational CSR initiatives suggest that a huge percentage of the respondents agreed they
influenced their loyalty to telecom operators. They are aware of the initiatives and the role it
plays in their various communities. However, very few respondents were aware of the
existence and importance of business incubators. The statistics show that educational
initiatives could have a significant effect on customer loyalty.
Going by the premise of this study, which suggested the inexistence of any statistically
significant relationship between corporate social responsibility initiatives and customer
loyalty. The regression for this same period as shown in Figure 8 revealed a positive
relationship between educational support initiatives in terms of scholarship programs,
business incubators programmes and the satisfaction of customers. This is in line with the
stakeholder theory on which the model of this study was built. Based on this we reject the null
premise that educational support initiatives have no significant effect on customer loyalty.
Figure 8: Presentation of descriptive statistics on Environmental initiatives
Figure 8 above shows the actual numbers and the percentages of responses giving by
participants on questions concerning environmental initiatives.

44
The premise of the study held that no significant relationship existed between environmental
support initiatives and customer loyalty. Environmental philanthropy is however an
insignificant influence as revealed by the test of significance, which justifies the non-rejection
of the suggested insignificant relationship between environmental philanthropy and customer
loyalty. Apparently, individual awareness and concern for the environment seems to be very
low. This to an extent is enough evidence to confirm why initiatives on this dimension of CSR
display an insignificant relationship with customer loyalty antecedents.
Figure 9: Presentation of descriptive statistics on Social initiatives
The figure above shows the actual numbers and the percentages of responses giving by
participants on questions concerning social initiatives.
Respondents agreed with the Social initiatives that telecom operators are undertaking in order
to promote corporate social responsibility and foster customer loyalty. A huge majority
recognised the efforts through employment opportunities, sponsoring sports, sponsoring arts

45
and culture and empowering the communities. Thus one can say that Social initiatives have a
huge impact on customer loyalty.
Figure 10 : Presentation of descriptive statistics on Health initiatives
Figure 10 above shows the actual numbers and the percentages of responses giving by
participants on questions concerning health initiatives.
From the statistics, we gathered that most respondents were only aware of part of Health
initiatives being carried out by telecom operators. This could be due to the fact that these
initiatives are campaigns, meaning they have to be highly publicised hence people will be
aware of them. Initiatives like donation of hospital equipment and construction of hospitals
had the highest percentages of disagreement. Probably because respondents did not think this
was part of CSR initiatives or they think it did not influence their loyalty towards a particular
brand in one way or the other. However, we can deduce that health initiatives of CSR are
fairly significant to customer loyalty.
4.2 Verification of hypotheses and summary of findings
46
In this section, the research hypotheses will be verified and summary of major findings will
be presented.
4.2.1 Verification of hypotheses for corporate social responsibility initiatives and

customer loyalty
The researcher also sought to examine the perception of customers regarding their loyalty to
telecom companies that engage in CSR. The result generally shows that the CSR activities
embarked upon by the telecom companies have some level of impact on the loyalty of
customers. This means that customers consider the CSR activities of their telecom companies
when deciding on whether to remain loyal to them or not.
Table 4: Correlations matrix between corporate social responsibility variables and customer
loyalty
Variables Education Environment Social Health Customer Loyalty
Education 1.000 0.006 0.693 0.010 0.690
Environment 0.006 1.000 -0.052 0.975 -0.030
Social 0.693 -0.052 1.000 -0.050 0.876
Health 0.010 0.975 -0.050 1.000 -0.032
Customer Loyalty 0.690 -0.030 0.876 -0.032 1.000
Source: Computed by researcher (2019)
From the table above, we realized that corporate social responsibility exerts a significant
relationship with customer loyalty. In details we have a positive and strong significant relation
between Educational initiatives and customer loyalty with a correlation coefficient
r = 0.690** and p = 0.001 at 0.01 level of significance, we accept the hypothesis H1. These
imply that a unit change in Educational initiatives will leads to a positive and significant
change in customer loyalty with the coefficients presented above. That is, if the educational
initiatives are regularly better customer loyalty will always be achieved. The study pointed
out that the way customers perceive CSR activities of their telecommunication
providers have an impact on their loyalty, which aligns with previous studies that aimed at
exploring the same (Chen, Chang, & Lin, 2012; Martínez & Del Bosque, 2013; Rashid,
Khalid, & Rahman, 2015). CSR has different impact on CL ranging from very strong effect to
no effect at all based on the dimensions tested and the market itself.
Still from thee correlation matrix table, we realize that there is strong positive and significant
relation between Social initiatives and customer loyalty with a correlation coefficient r =
0.876** and p = 0.000 at 0.01 level of significance, we accept the hypothesis H3. These imply
47
that a unit change in Social initiatives will leads to a positive and strong significant change in
customer loyalty. The results imply that social initiatives have great influence on customer
loyalty. These results corroborate that of Rashid, Khalid, and Rahman (2015) who examined
whether CL is affected by three elements of environmental CSR, those are; philanthropy,
community services, and society well-being. The study findings showed a positive
relationship between each of community services, customer well-being and CL. Other studies
showed that the correlation is indirectly positive, through other mediating variables such as
the whole evaluation of service, the word of mouth, the purchase intentions and the
satisfaction level (Salmones, Perez, & Del Bosque, 2009; Chomvilailuk & Butcher, 2014).
While environmental and health initiatives their parts show a negative and insignificant
relation with customer loyalty having correlation coefficients r = -0.030** and r = -0.032** at
0.01 level of significance, we reject the hypotheses H2 and H4. These imply that a unit
change in environmental and health initiatives will leads to a negative and insignificant
change in customer loyalty. The results of this study indeed contradict with other
studies that found insignificant correlation between CSR and CL (Xu, 2014). This might be
due to cultural differences and lack of general awareness of CSR importance to society.
Moisescu (2015b) analyzed the CSR and CL relation based on the socio-cultural and
economic dimensions of the Romanian telecommunication market, and it was found that CSR
didn’t play a significant role in impacting customer loyalty. Nevertheless, the study revealed
that there is a need for full and transparent disclosure of CSR policies and activities, adopting
more customer-centric approach, where customers are the center of attention, ensuring the
fairness and adequacy of prices, and improving quality.
Table 5: Model Summaryb

Model Observations R R2 Adjusted R2 Std. Error of the Estimate
a
1 623.000 0.788 0.781 0.780 0.222
a. Predictors: (Constant), Education, Environment, Social, Health
b. Dependent Variable: Customer loyalty
Table 5 above presents the means indications of the association between variables, so having
a correlation of R = 0.788 which means that there is a strong correlation between the
predictors and dependent variables. Infering to the adjusted R 2 = 0.781, means that 78% of
variations in customer loyalty are explained by variations in corporate social responsibility
variables, while 22.2% variations in customer loyalty are explained by variations in other

48
variables different from corporate social responsibility variables. This is known as the
coefficient of non – determination.
Table 6: Analysis of variance (ANOVAa) of the model

Source DF Sum of squares Mean squares F Pr > F
Model 4 711.609 177.902 551.735 < 0.0001
Error 618 199.269 0.322
Corrected Total 622 910.877
Computed against model Y=Mean(Y)
The Fisher's F test is used given the fact that the probability corresponding to the F value is
lower than 0.001, it means that we would be taking a lower than 0.01% risk in assuming that
the null hypothesis (Corporate social responsibility does not have a significant effect on the
Customer Loyalty of the Telecommunication Industry in Cameroon) is wrong. Therefore, we
can conclude with confidence that the four variables (educational, environmental, social and
health initiatives) do bring a significant amount of information in predicting customer loyalty
in the Telecommunications industry. The risk to reject the null hypothesis while it is true is
lower than 0.01%.
Table 7: Model parameters corporate social responsibility variables and customer loyalty
Standard Lower bound Upper bound
Source Value t Pr > |t|
error (95%) (95%)
Constant 0.293 0.101 2.896 0.004 0.094 0.492
Education 0.181 0.030 6.071 0.0001 0.123 0.240
Environment 0.061 0.080 0.762 0.446 -0.096 0.219
Social 0.696 0.024 29.266 0.0001 0.649 0.743
Health -0.059 0.086 -0.684 0.494 -0.228 0.110
Source: Computed by the researcher (2019)

Equation of the model:
Customer Loyalty = 0.293 + 0.181 * Education + 0.061 * Environment + 0.696 * Social
- 0.059 * Health
From the functional relation given above, we realise that a unit variation in Educational,
Environmental and Social initiatives will leads to a positive 0.181, 0.061 and 0.696
respectively change on customer loyalty in the telecommunications industry, while a unit
change in Health intiatives will leads to a decrease in customer loyalty in the
telecommunications industry by -0.059.

49
The intercept (constant term) is the expected mean value of Y when all independent variables
= 0. Everything being constant, Telecommunication Industry in Cameroon will make a
positive Customer Loyalty in the absence of corporate social responsibility. Furthermore,
Telecommunication Industry in Cameroon will make a significant Customer Loyalty in the
absence of Educational initiatives, Environmental Initiatives, Social Initiatives, Health
Initiatives, FALSE as given by the significance of the t - statistic of 0.39% which is lower
than the level of significance of 0.05
At a 95% confidence interval, Educational initiatives have a positive but insignificant effect
on Customer loyalty all other variables being constant. For each unit increase In the
Educational initiatives, Customer loyalty increases by 18.15%. Inferring from the significance
of the t statistic of 6.071 we will be taking a < 0.0001 risk in assuming that the Educational
initiatives have a significant effect on the Customer loyalty which is greater than the level of
significance of 5%. We therefore conclude that the Educational initiatives have a positive but
insignificant effect on the Customer loyalty.
At a 95% confidence interval, Environmental initiatives have a positive but insignificant

effect on Customer loyalty all other variables being constant. For each unit increase In the
Environmental initiatives, Customer loyalty increases by 6.11%. Inferring from the
significance of the t statistic of 0.762 we will be taking a 44.64% risk in assuming that the
Environmental initiatives have a significant effect on the Customer loyalty which is greater
than the level of significance of 5%. We therefore conclude that the Environmental Initiatives
has a positive but insignificant effect on the Customer loyalty.
At a 95% confidence interval, Social initiatives have a positive but insignificant effect on
Customer loyalty all other variables being constant. For each unit increase In the Social
Initiatives, Customer loyalty increases by 69.61%. Inferring from the significance of the t
statistic of 29.266 we will be taking a < 0.0001 risk in assuming that the Social Initiatives
have a significant effect on the Customer loyalty which is greater than the level of
significance of 5%. We therefore conclude that the Social initiatives have a positive but
insignificant effect on the Customer loyalty.
At a 95% confidence interval, Health initiatives have a negative but insignificant effect on
Customer loyalty for each unit decrease in the Health initiatives, customer loyalty decreases
by -5.9%. Inferring from the significance of the t statistic of -0.684 we will be taking a
50
49.44% risk in assuming that the Health initiatives have a significant effect on the customer
loyalty which is greater than the level of significance of 5%. We therefore conclude that the
Health Initiatives has a negative but insignificant effect on the Customer loyalty.
Looking at the preceding four paragraphs, two of the covariates (Health initiatives and
environmental initiatives) are insignificant with only educational and social initiatives
displaying a significant effect on customer loyalty. In terms of the number of significant
regressors it appears no serious relationship exists but the overall significance as illustrated by
the F- statistic confirms a significant impact of CSR initiatives on customer loyalty of telecom
subscribers in Cameroon.
4.2.2 Summary of Findings

In this section, the summary of major findings will be presented as shown on the table below.

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Table 8: Summary of hypotheses results

Standardized Impact on
Hypothesis Variable Coefficient customer Significance Decision
Beta loyalty
(0.001)
H1 Education 0.159 positive Accepted
Significant
(0.446)
H2 Environment 0.065 Positive Rejected
Insignificant
(0.001)
H3 Social 0.767 Negative Accepted
Significant
(0.494)
H4 Health -0.058 Negative Rejected
Insignificant
Source: author’s conception (2019)
Table 8 shows the acception of Educational and social initiatives is due to the fact that they
exert a positive and significant impact on Customer loyalty in the Telecommunication
industry. Even though the two initiatives have a positive relation with Customer loyalty,
Social initiaties exerts more positive impact than Educational initiatives clearly shown in
Figure 11 below. However, the rejection of Environmental and Health initiatives are a
consequence of the fact that they exert a negative impact on Customer loyalty in the
Telecommunication industry.
The figure below presents the standardized coefficients of customer loyalty as the dependent
variable and CSR activities as the independent variable.

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Source: Computed by the researcher (2019)

Figure 11: Presentation of descriptive statistics on Customer loyalty
Both elements of Corporate Social Responsibility and Customer Loyalty have attracted the
attention of different researchers, hence various studies have been conducted to examine the
nature of relationship these two elements may have in common, as explained earlier. The
results of these previous studies varied between concluding a positive correlation or a
negative one, thus it was critical to understanding the nature of this relationship in the
Telecommunication sector, which is considered one of the fastest growing markets in the
country which hasn’t been explored before to the best of the researchers’ knowledge.
The results showed that customers in the telecommunication sector do pay attention and are
aware of the CSR-related activities, more importantly they do believe that the existence of
such activities and the organizations involvement in it is significantly important. Such results
are good indicators of a progress in the customers’ mentality and awareness in developing
countries that is going through a relatively fast development and rapid growth on various
levels. The study found out that almost all different types of CSR activities conducted by the
telecom providers are being noted and acknowledged by their customers, however the CSR
activities that seemed to gain more interest and higher attention are those activities falling
under the educational and social umbrella/dimensions, other activities are related to the

53
ethical, economic, and environmental dimensions are being noticed as well but not on the
same level as the previously mentioned dimensions. Having the first three CSR dimensions
being the most seen by customers can in fact indicate that a higher value is placed on these
dimensions; the remaining CSR categories that acquire less attention need more
efforts from both providers.
The study reported that customers of the telecommunication sector tend to have high level of
loyalty to their providers. Moreover, it has been acknowledged that customers have high
tendency to recommend their telecommunication provider to others and positively talk about
them, which is by definition a positive word of mouth. Also, the tendency of conducting a
repurchase was relatively high and is considered as a sort of behavioral loyalty (Kaur & Soch,
2012), Nevertheless, it is essential to highlight that price tolerance tendency is not as high as
the rest of loyalty aspects, such results express that customers’ loyalty might actually be
negatively impacted in case the telecommunication providers raise the prices of
their services.

54
GENERAL CONCLUSION
The concept of CSR has become more and more common in business practices and customers
today almost expect companies to be socially responsible. Even though CSR is very important
for companies, it has historically not been a very lucrative approach for them to involve in
these activities since its impact cannot be easily measured. The two main fields of study that
this research has aimed at contributing to are the concept of corporate social responsibility and
consumer behaviour. In terms of the knowledge and new insights that this research has
generated to these fields, one of the most important contributions concerns the entire purpose
of this study; to examine how the perceived CSR activities influence customer loyalty. The
theme addressed in this study has added to our knowledge the importance of understanding
the positive impact that CSR initiatives might bring.
The purpose of the study was to examine how customers perceive CSR activities of telecom
companies and their expectations of CSR activities. The study found that the main CSR focus
areas of telecom companies in Cameroon are health, education support, environmental
support and social activities. The findings also show that customers of the telecom companies
expect them to provide quality service in terms of network connectivity. The study further
found a positive relationship between CSR activities and customer loyalty.
The effects of CSR on customer loyalty have been studied in a direct relationship. Customer
loyalty is one of the most important consumer behaviours companies try to influence by using
CSR as a marketing tool. In a study conducted by Saunders (2006), it is found that the
percentage of consumers who are more likely to recommend a brand that supports a good
cause over the one that does not is 52%. Meanwhile, 55% of consumers contend that in a
recession they will buy from brands that support good causes even if they are not necessarily
the cheapest. Companies that have made CSR a central part of their businesses are reaping the
benefits in the form of company sustainability, reducing liabilities, and insurance costs, as
well as improved brand image.

55
This study has found that engagement in CSR activities is valuable for firms in the telecom
sector. However, consumer awareness on CSR activities of the firms is generally low.
Considering the increase in attention and interest brought to CSR, there will most likely be a
future interest in the topic. This is a strong indicator for companies to continue their
engagement in CSR activities. Thus, if and when CSR becomes a more prominent element of
consumers' consciousness of the marketplace, a CSR positioning might turn into an important
competitive advantage.
1. RECOMMENDATIONS
Customers are eager to do business with companies that value them and seek out customer
feedback to show that customer opinions matter. When their feedback is responded, it makes
an even bigger positive impression that will keep customers coming back. Emotional
connection drives decisions. Customers want to feel cared for and cared about. People prefer
to do business with people they like. This is the age of the educated consumer and therefore
customers will prefer a company who help them become better at using their product and
services and offer helpful instruction or an in-depth special report which help customers gain
insights. The researcher recommends the following:
Telecom companies should still help society in the areas of education, health and economic
empowerment as a lot of communities are benefiting from these CSR activities. Attention
should however be given also to environmental protection since most respondents seemingly
knew little about CSR activities in that area.
In addition to supporting or spearheading social activity initiatives in the communities,

Telecom companies should adopt a pragmatic approach to include customer management
practises, charging of fair price and provision of good network connectivity in their CSR
policies and initiatives as a means of satisfying customers’ expectations and in turn reaping
the benefits in the long run.
Telecom companies should engage in more CSR activities to completely change the
perception associated with companies involved in CSR initiatives since based on the study,
the negative perception is gradually changing.

56
Based on the findings, CSR has a positive impact on customer loyalty and therefore Telecom
companies in Cameroon should enhance their CSR interventions in order to improve the
loyalty level of their customers.
2. LIMITATIONS
Although the amount of research on CSR and customer loyalty is still small, it is growing.
Parallel to this, company CSR activities as well as customer awareness and attitudes towards
CSR are in a developing stage. It is important to note that this affects attitudinal studies and
therefore the results found in this study are a “snapshot” of consumer behaviour at this point
in time. Corporate social responsible behaviour and customer attitudes are expected to be
heavily influenced by societal and cultural trends.
The first limitation relates to the sample size and also to the specificity of our study. The
researcher initially took a sample size of 800 so as to really represent the customers in the
telecom sector. It was a cumbersome, expensive and time consuming task to administer
questionnaires to at most 800 respondents. Finally, we used 623 questionnaire responses that
correctly and completely filled.
Also, given that the delimitation of the study was all of Cameroon, the researcher had to pick
a population representative of the national territory and also familiar with the concept of
corporate social responsibility. Thus the university milieu was ideal. However, it was very
expensive moving from one university town to the other. Language barrier was also a
problem.
This study has geographical and industry limitations. The study focuses only on companies
acting in the telecommunication industry. Consequently, the results from this study are only to
be taken into the context of the telecom operators in Cameroon. Since the findings may differ
depending on in which industry and country the study is done, a suggestion for future research
is to perform the same study in different industries and geographical locations in order to
validate the findings from this study.
3. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES

As mentioned in the introduction as well as in the theoretical chapter, the engagement in CSR
is to an ever-increasing extent adapted by all kinds of companies worldwide. Thus, more and
more research is being made within the area and the concept of CSR has been elaborated and

57
developed continuously. Still, there is a lack of studies explaining the actual effect of CSR
and the impact it has on consumer behaviour. This study makes a contribution to this area of
research.
Further studies needs to be conducted from the service firm’s perspective to assess
employees’ expectation, the CSR strategies used and the impact CSR has on employees in the
Telecommunication industry.
As the data shows, consumer awareness about the companies' CSR activities is generally low.
This finding asks for further future research into this matter. In order to examine the actual
customer awareness regarding CSR engagement of companies acting on the telecom sector, a
more extended study with this focus could be performed. The results of that study would be of
great importance and interest for these companies and the field of marketing in general.
Since this study demonstrates the positive relationship between CSR engagement and
customer loyalty, interesting would be to also investigate the impact of CSR involvement
from a financial point of view. Thus, given the growing prominence of CSR on the corporate
agenda and its effect on consumer behaviour, a notable stream of additional research would be
to examine the actual returns on CSR investments.
It would be recommended for future research to inspect and explore the same variables within
different areas, sectors and industries, this can provide a holistic view of the perception and
attitudes toward CSR in Cameroon and can be utilized for cross-sectional comparisons and
development purposes. Also, future research may expand on a geographical basis to examine
the same variables but within different markets in other countries of the Gulf region to
compare the results.
Lastly, this study only focused on four CSR activities, there are other unexploited areas like
philanthropic, legal, ethical, economic and customer protection. It will be good to also
investigate customer perception and awareness towards corporate social responsibility.

58
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INTERNET SOURCES
http://mtn.cm/About-Us
http://orange.cm/About-Us
http://www.camtel.net

68
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
Dear respondent,
I am Mella Ashley TABI AYAMBA, a Masters II student of the department of Marketing and
Human Resource Management in the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences
(FSEG) of the University of Dschang. This questionnaire is designed to solicit views from
respondents on the topic: “The impact of corporate social responsibility on customer
loyalty in the Telecommunication Industry in Cameroon”. Your kind and frank opinion on
the issues raised in this questionnaire is very necessary to this research. It is purely for
academic exercise. Please the information you provide will be treated in strictest confidence.
Your anonymity is very much guaranteed. Thank you for your co-operation.
SECTION A: Demographic information

Instructions: Please kindly place a tick into the box (▭) that corresponds to your answer
choice.
1. Gender: Male Female
2. Age Group: Below 20 years 20-29 years 30-39 years
40-49 years above 50 years
3. Educational qualification: Undergraduate Graduate Post graduate
Others
4. How long have you had a phone? below 5 years 6-10 years
11-15 years 16-20 years 21 years and above
5. Which Mobile Network do you use? MTN ORANGE CAMTEL
SECTION B: Questions on CSR initiatives.

Please read each statement and circle the number which most closely matches your opinion on
a scale from 1-4, where 1=Strongly Disagree (SD), 2=Disagree (D), 3= Neutral (N), 4=Agree
(A), and 5=Strongly Agree (SA). Please circle only one choice for each item.

69
CSR INITIATIVES
To what extent do you agree that telecom operators should

S/N SD D N A SA
be engaged in the following educational initiatives
Telecom operators construct or renovate school buildings for

1
communities
Telecom operators provide educational scholarships for
2
students especially in information technology
Telecoms donate learning aids and equipment to schools like
3
computers
4 Telecoms sponsor business incubator projects in schools

SD D N A SA
be engaged in the following environmental initiatives
Telecom operators engage in reduction of waste and pollution

5
to environment.
Telecom operators support activities that prevent harm to the
6
environment like planting of trees
Telecom operators participate in drilling boreholes in
7
communities to provide portable water

SD D N A SA
be engaged in the following social initiatives
Telecom operators provide employment to empower

8
community members
Telecom operators donate to the needs of the vulnerable to
9
empower them economically.
10 Telecom operators sponsor Sporting events and tournaments
Telecom operators sponsor arts and cultural activities that

11
develop talents in the society

SD D N A SA
be engaged in the following health initiatives

70
Telecom operators sponsor health screening and awareness

12
campaigns on diseases
13 Telecom operators donate hospital equipment

Telecom operators construct or renovate hospitals for
14
communities
15 Telecom operators sponsor vaccination campaigns
CUSTOMER LOYALTY
To what extent do you agree that the CSR activities of SD D N A SA

telecom operators has an effect on your loyalty?
16 Telecom operators have loyal customers

Telecom operators actively participates and supports CSR
17
activities
Telecom operators should focus on proper customer
18 management and customer service
Telecom operators provide a clear and effective complain

19 program for customers, and solve their problems fairly and
immediately
20 Telecom operators should engage in more social projects.
I use a particular mobile service because part of profits goes
21
into environmental sustainable initiatives
I use my mobile operator because I believe part of their profits
22
goes into charitable causes.
I am satisfied purchasing a service from a mobile operator
23
knowing company makes effort in CSR
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATION i
DEDICATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

71
BRIEF CONTENT iii

LIST OF TABLES iv
LIST OF FIGURES v
ABSTRACT vi
RESUME vii
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1
1. Context of the study.............................................................................................................1
2. Problem statement...............................................................................................................3
3. Research question................................................................................................................5
4. Research objectives.............................................................................................................5
5. Research hypotheses............................................................................................................6
6. Significance of the study......................................................................................................7
7. Research methodology.........................................................................................................8
8. Organisation of the study....................................................................................................8
PART I: NOTIONS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND
CUSTOMER LOYALTY 9
CHAPTER 1: PRESENTATION OF CONCEPTS UNDER INVESTIGATION 10
1.1 Definition and Evolution of Corporate social responsibility 10
1.1.1 Definition of Corporate social responsibility 10
1.1.2 Forms of Corporate social responsibility 11
1.1.3 Evolution of Corporate Social responsibility 13
1.2 The concept of Customer Loyalty and its antecedents 15
1.2.1 Definition of Customer Loyalty........................................................................................15
1.2.2 The antecedents of customer loyalty................................................................................16
1.2.3 Factors influencing the evaluation of Customer Loyalty 17
CHAPTER 2:THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL FRAMEWORK OF CORPORATE
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY 20
2.1 Theoretical framework of corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty. 20
2.1.1 The conceptual relationship between corporate social responsibility and customer
loyalty.......................................................................................................................................20
2.1.2 Stakeholder Theory of CSR.............................................................................................21
2.1.3 The Triple Bottom Line Theory.......................................................................................22
2.1.4 Garriga and Mele’s Analysis...........................................................................................23
72
2.1.5 Dynamic Model of Customer Loyalty.............................................................................24

2.2 Empirical Literature on Corporate Social Responsibility and customer loyalty 25
PART II:METHODOLOGY USED IN ANALYSING CSR AND CUSTOMER
LOYALTY RELATIONS, DATA PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
31
CHAPTER 3:RESEARCH METHODOLOGY USED TO EVALUATE THE
VARIABLES32
3.1 Presentation of the population, tools of collection and research design 32
3.1.1 Scope/Delimitation of the study.......................................................................................32
3.1.2 Accessible population, target population and sample of the study..................................32
3.1.3 Research design...............................................................................................................33
3.1.4 Data collection Instrument..............................................................................................33
3.1.5 Validation of research instrument...................................................................................34
3.1.6 Reliability of research instrument....................................................................................34
3.1.7 Ethical Issues...................................................................................................................35
3.2 Operationalization, description and measurement of variables 35
3.2.1. Operationalization of concepts and variables................................................................36
3.2.2 Measurement of variables................................................................................................37
1. Techniques of data analysis..................................................................................................37
2. Estimation and validation of the techniques.........................................................................38
CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION OF ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
40
4.1 Presentation and interpretation of results 40
4.1.1 Descriptive statistics of demographic information of the participants............................40
4.1.2 Descriptive statistics of corporate social responsibility and customer loyalty...............43
4.2 Verification of hypotheses and summary of findings 47
4.2.1 Verification of hypotheses for corporate social responsibility initiatives and customer
loyalty........................................................................................................................................47
4.2.2 Summary of Findings.......................................................................................................51
GENERAL CONCLUSION 55
1. RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................56
2. LIMITATIONS................................................................................................................57

73
3. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDIES.................................................................57

BIBLIOGRAPHY 59
SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 69
APPENDICES 75
APPENDICES

74
Table 1 : Cronbach Alpha Test of reliability
Number of
Number of Cronbach’s
CLUSTER CONSTRUCT Questionnair
items alpha
e
CLUSTER
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES 4 23 0.725
1
CLUSTER ENVIRONMENT
3 23 0.789
2 ACTIVITIES
CLUSTER
SOCIAL INITIATIVES 4 23 0.825
3
CLUSTER
HEALTH INITIATIVES 4 23 0.811
4
CLUSTER
CUSTOMER LOYALTY 7 23 0.798
5
Table 2 : Presentation of quantitative results

EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES
SD D U A SA TOTAL
% % % % %
N N %D N N N N
SD U A SA TOTAL
construct or renovate
8 13 21 10 19 31 15 62
school buildings for 13% 60 25% 100%
3 0 % % 3 % 7 3
communities
provide educational
scholarships for students 5 10 17 10 17 19 32 16 62
9% 26% 100%
especially in information 4 7 % 3 % 8 % 1 3
technology
donate learning aids and
8 14 14 20 33 16 62
equipment to schools like 13% 86 87 26% 100%
0 % % 7 % 3 3
computers
sponsor business incubator 9 24 39 15 25 10 62
15% 63 67 11% 100%
project in your schools 5 2 % 6 % % 3
EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVES
Dis Nue Agr Total
% % % %
N N N N
Dis Nue Agr Total
construct or renovate school buildings for 21 35 62
34% 60 10% 56% 100%
communities 3 0 3
provide educational scholarships for 16 26% 10 17% 35 58% 62 100%

1 3 9 3

75
students especially in information

technology
donate learning aids and equipment to 16 37 62
27% 87 14% 59% 100%
schools like computers 6 0 3
Sponsor business incubator project in 33 15 13 62
54% 25% 21% 100%
schools 7 6 0 3
ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES
SD D U A SA TOTAL
% % % % % %
N N N N N N
SD D U A SA TOTAL
participates in clean up
14 16 27 11 18 10 16 62
exercise to keep the 24% 93 15% 100%
7 8 % 5 % 0 % 3
environment clean
support activities that
prevent harm to the 16 14 22 12 20 15 10 62
26% 93 16% 100%
environment like planting 5 0 % 3 % % 2 3
of trees
drilled boreholes in
10 24 39 13 22 11 18 62
communities to provide 17% 28 4% 100%
6 3 % 4 % 2 % 3
portable water
ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES
Dis Nue Agr Total
% % % %
N N N N
Dis Nue Agr Total
participates in clean up exercise to keep the 31 11 19 62
51% 18% 31% 100%
environment clean 5 5 3 3
support activities that prevent harm to the 30 12 19 62
49% 20% 31% 100%
environment like planting of trees 5 3 5 3
have drilled boreholes in communities to 34 13 14 62
56% 22% 22% 100%
provide portable water 9 4 0 3
SOCIAL INITIATIVES
SD D U A SA TOTAL
% % % % % %
N N N N N N
SD D U A SA TOTAL

76
provide employment to
empower community 12 11 18 3 19 30 16 62
21% 5% 26% 100%
members sometimes as 8 3 % 2 0 % 0 3
brand ambassadors
donate to the needs of the
13 12 5 18 30 16 62
vulnerable to empower them 22% 77 9% 27% 100%
4 % 6 9 % 7 3
economically.
Sporting events and
4 23 38 22 62
tournaments are sponsored 57 9% 57 9% 8% 36% 100%
7 9 % 3 3
by telecom operators
sponsor arts and cultural
16 4 21 34 16 62
activities that develop talents 97 16% 99 7% 27% 100%
% 5 4 % 8 3
in the society
SOCIAL INITIATIVES
Dis Nue Agr Total
% % % %
N N N N
Dis Nue Agr Total
provide employment to empower community 24 3 35 62

39% 5% 56% 100%
members sometimes as brand ambassadors 1 2 0 3
donate to the needs of the vulnerable to 21 5 35 62

34% 9% 57% 100%
empower them economically. 1 6 6 3
Sporting events and tournaments are 11 4 46 62

18% 8% 74% 100%
sponsored by telecom operators 4 7 2 3
sponsor arts and cultural activities that 19 4 38 62

31% 7% 61% 100%
develop talents in the society 6 5 2 3
HEALTH INITIATIVES
SD D U A SA TOTAL
% % % % % %
N N N N N N
SD D U A SA TOTAL
sponsor health screening
10 16 21 34 17 27 62
and awareness campaigns 48 8% 91 15% 100%
2 % 2 % 0 % 3
on diseases

77
donates hospital 19 32 23 38 62
70 11% 52 8% 69 11% 100%
equipment 8 % 4 % 3
construct or renovate 24 12 20 12 20 10 62
39% 65 69 11% 100%
hospitals for communities 3 4 % 2 % % 3
sponsor vaccination 10 15 10 17 21 35 10 62
16% 93 17% 100%
campaigns 0 % 9 % 6 % 5 3
HEALTH INITIATIVES
Dis Nue Agr Total
% % % %
N N N N
Dis Nue Agr Total
sponsor health screening and awareness 15 21 26 62
24% 34% 42% 100%
campaigns on diseases 0 2 1 3
26 23 12 62
donates hospital equipment 43% 38% 19% 100%
8 4 1 3
construct or renovate hospitals for 36 12 13 62
59% 20% 22% 100%
communities 7 2 4 3
19 10 32 62
sponsor vaccination campaigns 31% 17% 52% 100%
3 9 1 3
Verification of hypothesis
Summary statistics:
Std.
Variable Observations Minimum Maximum Mean deviation
Customer
Loyalty 623 1.000 5.000 3.385 1.210
Education 623 1.000 5.000 3.512 1.059
Environment 623 1.000 5.000 2.660 1.278
Social 623 1.000 5.000 3.538 1.333
Health 623 1.000 5.000 2.892 1.189
Correlation matrix:
Educatio Environmen Healt Customer
Variables n t Social h Loyalty
Education 1.000 0.006 0.693 0.010 0.690

78
-
Environment 0.006 1.000 0.052 0.975 -0.030
Social 0.693 -0.052 1.000 -0.050 0.876
-
Health 0.010 0.975 0.050 1.000 -0.032
Customer
Loyalty 0.690 -0.030 0.876 -0.032 1.000
Multicolinearity statistics:
Educatio Environmen Socia Healt
Statistic n t l h
Toleranc
e 0.517 0.049 0.516 0.049
20.28
VIF 1.934 20.281 1.938 7
Regression of variable
Customer Loyalty:
Goodness of fit statistics:
623.00
Observations 0
Sum of 623.00
weights 0
618.00
DF 0
R² 0.781
Adjusted R² 0.780
MSE 0.322
RMSE 0.568
MAPE 18.043
DW 0.136
Cp 5.000
-
700.15
AIC 3
-
677.98
SBC 0
PC 0.222
Analysis of variance:
Sum of Mean
Source DF squares squares F Pr > F
Model 4 711.609 177.902 551.73 <

79
5 0.0001
61
Error 8 199.269 0.322
Corrected 62
Total 2 910.877
Computed against model Y=Mean(Y)
Model parameters:
Valu Standard Lower bound Upper bound
Source e error t Pr > |t| (95%) (95%)
Intercept 0.293 0.101 2.896 0.004 0.094 0.492
Education 0.181 0.030 6.071 < 0.0001 0.123 0.240
Environment 0.061 0.080 0.762 0.446 -0.096 0.219
Social 0.696 0.024 29.266 < 0.0001 0.649 0.743
-
Health 0.059 0.086 -0.684 0.494 -0.228 0.110
Equation of the model:

Customer Loyalty = 0.293395606713002+0.181474531558307*Education+6.11223434751729E-
02*Environment+0.696082052703464*Social-5.89879607816718E-02*Health
Standardized coefficients:
Standard Lower bound Upper bound
Source Value error t Pr > |t| (95%) (95%)
<
Education 0.159 0.026 6.071 0.0001 0.107 0.210
Environmen
t 0.065 0.085 0.762 0.446 -0.102 0.231
29.26 <
Social 0.767 0.026 6 0.0001 0.715 0.818
-
Health 0.058 0.085 -0.684 0.494 -0.224 0.108

80

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REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON REPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN

DSCHANG SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

OPTION: STRATEGY AND MANAGEMENT OF ORGANISATIONS

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN THE

Name and signature of the author

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA

Name and signature of the supervisor

Dr. KENMOGNE FOHOUO Alain

I want to show appreciation to the administration of the Faculty of Economics and

Table 1: Garriga and Mele’s theories and related approaches 23

Figure 1: Carroll´s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility 11

Key words: corporate social responsibility, behavioral loyalty, consumer behaviour,

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

3. To assess the effect of educational support activities on customer loyalty in the

Corporate social responsibility activities have a significant impact on customer loyalty.

6. Significance of the study

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

8. Organisation of the study

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

1.1Definition and Evolution of Corporate social responsibility

1.1.1 Definition of Corporate social responsibility

According to Carroll (1983), “corporate social responsibility involves the conduct of a

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

Sarker (2014) defines corporate social responsibility as the continuing commitment by

1.1.2 Forms of Corporate social responsibility

Source: Caroll (1991)

Figure 1: Carroll´s Pyramid of Corporate Social Responsibility

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

1.1.3 Evolution of Corporate Social responsibility

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MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

Figure 2: The evolution of CSR

Source: Hugo van den Berg (2012)

1.2 The concept of Customer Loyalty and its antecedents

1.2.1 Definition of Customer Loyalty

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

1.2.2 The antecedents of customer loyalty

1.2.2.1 Attitudinal loyalty

1.2.2.2 Behavioural Loyalty

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

Behavioral loyalty means consumers’ repurchase behavioral or intension of specific brand.

Measurement of customer loyalty should be based on the behavioural concept that is

1.2.3 Factors influencing the evaluation of Customer Loyalty

Customer satisfaction is determined by customer perception following a service or purchase

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

1.2.3.2 Service quality

Service quality is a customer’s evaluation of overall superiority of a service encounter; it is a

1.2.3.3 Corporate Image

1.2.3.4 Switching Costs

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page

2.1 Theoretical framework of corporate social responsibility and customer

MELLA ASHLEY TABI AYAMBA Page