Corporate social responsibility in business sector in Nepal: contributions to building education and training opportunities in the country

Abstract

The service to humankind in Nepal was highly influenced by religion in the past. In the present context it has been institutionalized and their practice has been structured in the form of CSR. Since the needs and modes of service are various in kind and nature, the CSR practice to address social needs has been facing a number of constraints. Looking at the vitality of prospects and scope of CSR, the attention of society, government and business has been attracted towards it. This research thus focused how CSR can be best used in the sector of education, livelihood and local development. The respondents for this study were 50 business owners and 150 managers from 50 business organizations existing in different cities of Nepal: Kathmandu, Pokhara, Hetauda, Birgunj and Biratnagar. Separate questionnaires for both the business owners and the managers were developed. The tools for managers consisted of structured questions while the tools for the owners consisted of both the close and open-ended questions. The data obtained from the research participants were reduced, clustered, coded and entered into the SPSS computing program for processing and analyzing them. Outputs obtained from SPSS were presented in table and analyzed them descriptively with the help of qualitative data generated through in-depth interview and FGD. The data were also discussed and linked with social cognitive, human development and alternative development theories. One agreed meaning of CSR as found in this research is the service to society. The prospect of CSR was extensively focused in the field of education, livelihood and local development. The activities performed so far by the business institutions as the part of their CSR encompassed the area of environment, education, health and local development. The business holders in Nepal performed CSR activities due to their moral obligation and the feeling of social responsibility. Political, organizational, social and policy factors were noted as major constraints for CSR in Nepal. The sustainable practice of CSR was hampared due to these constraints, which also hindered the effective role of CSR in promoting opportunity for education and training among the needy. Based on the findings of this study a conceptual model was developed for extensive practice of CSR in Nepal.