The impact of corporate social responsibility of telecommunication companies and its perception on stakeholders: a case Study of Vodacom Tanzania Limited

Organizations use Corporate Social Responsibility as a tool for developing a favorable positive corporate perception among members of the community in which they operate. CSR activities help organizations to build a good reputation and maintain good relations with members of the community that can serve as a social capital and could contribute to future profitability of the company (Szeles, 2001). Corporate social responsibility activities of Vodacom are directed towards sponsorship of events, learning institutions, donations to entrepreneurs, orphanage centres Vodacom’s greatest contribution is the 5 years sponsorship to Vodacom Premier League to develop Tanzania’s football sports. However, there are concerns that CSR activities conducted by Telecommunication companies such as Vodacom have no positive impact on wellbeing of individuals, communities and countries as a whole. The theoretical framework for the study was provided by Stewardship Theory, Milton Freeman Theory, the Classcal view and the social economic view.This study used survey and questionnaire to collect data from 170 respondents. The collected data were coded, categorized and subjected to statistical analyses using SPSS. Particularly, one-way ANOVA and Independent T-Test were run. The results show that CSR is an accepted practice by both stakeholders of Vodacom including, customer, vodacom beneficiaries and non vodacom subsribers, as the study is concerned there is no significantly different in perception among stakeholders. The researcher recommends that CSR projects should be well structure and implemented to have maximum impact.The social change implication of this study include overall welfare of individuals, communities and the country as a whole; that is to say the enhancement of the well being of the beneficiaries and co-ordination of effort and resources in certain CSR project where synegy is likely to have greater impact.Vodacom should continue with its initiative towards CSR because it has a positive impact on the society.