DISSERTATION A STUDY OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY TOWARD CUSTOMER OF NHA BE WATER SUPPLY COMPANY JSC IN HO CHI MINH CITY Assignment number: one Weight: 75% Assignment length: 11592 words Student name: Nguyen Ngoc Thuy Linh Email: nnl2OCD@bolton.uk Student ID: 2124770 Module Tutor: Dr. David Ratcliffe Supervisor: Dr. Ron Smith Date of submission 1st MAY, 2023 Abstract Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the CSR activities that Nha Be WASUCO has been conducting toward customers. Design/methodology/approach - This is exploratory research using both qualitative and quantitative methods based on one company in the water industry in HCMC.
Data were collected via interviews with experts and a questionnaire survey of NBW customers in Ho Chi Minh City and a total of 174 valid responses were received. Findings - The study's findings demonstrate the significance of CSR activity implementation for clients, which can be evaluated using the research model's suggested five metrics. According to each industry, businesses should have specific plans and initiatives to carry out and improve their social duty to customers. Research limitations/implications – Through the case study of Nha Be WASUCO, the study recommended social responsibility initiatives for consumers in the water supply sector in Ho Chi Minh City.
Hence, companies in the same sector can consult and put their social responsibility into practice. Originality/value - This is one of the first studies to explore the CSR activities toward customers based on stakeholder's theory and two sets of standard GRI and ISO26000 in the water supply industry in HCMC Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR activity, water industry, water supply, Nha Be WASUCO, customers, Ho Chi Minh City. Paper type: Research paper 1 Declaration I declare that the dissertation, " A study of Corporate Social Responsibility toward customer of Nha Be Water Supply JSC in Ho Chi Minh City," is the outcome of my independent investigation under the supervision of Dr. Ron Smith The outcomes of the data collection conducted at the Nha Be Water Supply company are all included in the tables for analysis, commentary, and evaluation.
To complete this dissertation, I additionally looked over the pertinent sources that have been thoroughly cited and are now available. The data is entirely accurate and has not been plagiarized. I will assume full responsibility for the information in my report if any fraud was discovered. Ho Chi Minh City, April 1 2023 Nguyen Ngoc Thuy Linh 2 Acknowledgment First of all, the author would like to express her sincere gratitude to all of the lecturers, especially those at Ho Chi Minh University of Banking and the University of Bolton, for sharing their knowledge, expertise, and experience during the years in the university.
In particular, I want to express my gratitude to Dr. David Ratcliffe, Dr. Ron Smith, and Dr. Pham Thi Tuyet Trinh for devoting their valuable time to thoughtfully guiding and offering helpful advice to assist me in finishing this dissertation.
At the same time, I want to express my appreciation to the entire Nha Be Water Supply Company staff for helping me gather information for my research topic. Additionally, I am grateful to the respondents for their precious time to assist me in completing the research questionnaires. Finally, many thanks to my family and friends for their inspiration, encouragement, and support in helping me stay motivated to finish my research. With deep respect and gratitude, I would like to wish all of you a lot of health and success in work and life.
Ho Chi Minh City, April 1, 2023 Nguyen Ngoc Thuy Linh 3 CONTENTS ABSTRACT I DECLARATION II ACKNOWLEDGMENT III LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES IX CHAPTER 1. 55 APPENDIX 56 REFERENCES 77 GLOSSARY 89 WORD COUNT 90 7 List of tables and figures ● Figures FIGURE 2. CARROLL’S PYRAMID OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY FIGURE 2. TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE THEORY FIGURE 2.
STAKEHOLDER’S THEORY FIGURE 2. CONCEPTUAL0 FRAMEWORK OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY TOWARD CUSTOMER FIGURE 3. RESEARCH ONION FIGURE 3. METHODOLOGICAL CHOICE ● Tables TABLE 2.
EMPIRICAL STUDIES ON CSR TOWARD CUSTOMERS IN GENERAL AND THE WATER INDUSTRY IN DOMESTIC AND GLOBAL CONTEXTS TABLE 3. THE SCALE OF PRODUCT RESPONSIBILITY (PRO) TABLE 3. THE SCALE OF INFORMATION RESPONSIBILITY (INF) TABLE 3. THE SCALE OF CUSTOMER RIGHTS RESPONSIBILITY (RIG) TABLE 3.
THE SCALE OF CUSTOMER AWARENESS RESPONSIBILITY (AWA) TABLE 3. THE SCALE OF SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION RESPONSIBILITY (SUS) TABLE 4. BUSINESS PERFORMANCE OF NHA BE WASUCO BETWEEN 2020 AND 2022 TABLE 4. CRONBACH’S ALPHA OF RESEARCH SCALE TABLE 4.
CHARACTERISTIC OF RESEARCH RESPONDENTS TABLE 4. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTIC OF THE RESEARCH DATA 8 9 CHAPTER 1. Background The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR), which has sparked a lot of debate, analysis, theory development, and research, has grown in popularity and importance throughout time (Carroll and Shabana, 2010). However, its concept also changed as a result of the changing social expectations for company behavior in the subsequent decades (Agudelo et al.
Also, many studies have examined the idea of CSR since the 1950s and demonstrated the efficacy of various CSR programs and CSR dimensions (Carroll, 1979; Dahlsrud, 2008; Xia et al. So, Corporate Social Responsibility is generally understood as a continuous commitment by businesses to behave morally while enhancing the lives of their employees, the community, and society (Davis et al., 2016; Col and Patel, 2019). Given the intense competition in a globalized economy, CSR is a crucial predicate for companies looking to earn profit and maintain competitive advantages (Gorski et al. So, nowadays, many firms have spent money on CSR activities that help them increase their profit and achieve long-term growth (Ayangbah, 2017).
CSR in Vietnam In recent years, foreign NGOs and multinational corporations have engaged in several activities that have helped to popularize the idea of CSR in Vietnam. Moreover, due to changing perspectives, CSR integration into corporate strategies has become a major focus for many significant firms in Vietnam (Phan and Podrudsik, 2018). However, it is challenging to apply CSR in developing nations because of their limited legal systems and the strong influence that monopolies, corruption, and group interests have on society (Phan and 1 Podrudsik, 2018). Besides, several large businesses in Vietnam are aware that they must follow CSR principles if they want to expand sustainably.
Yet, due to the limited financial resources, human resources, and business size, the adoption and application of CSR in Vietnamese firms are encountering various challenges and restrictions (Nguyen et al. CSR in the water industry in Vietnam Nowadays, the entire water sector is under intense pressure to safeguard its natural capital and sustainably manage water sources as a result of climate change's increased stress on water sources and water quality (Miller and Hutchins, 2017). Public and private water providers are under more pressure to solve the growing water issues by incorporating CSR methods (Von Schwedler, 2011). The first reason is that water firms must give environmental concerns, and climate change, in particular, the top priority.
In addition, each business is in charge of a specific geographic region. So, it becomes imperative that they be among the first to adopt CSR practices to cover their ability to water supply services and protect the environment. Due to the rising need for clean water for use and production in Vietnam, the water supply industry is a safe sector with steady growth potential. Within the context of urbanization, the demand for clean water is rising (Shalizi, 2008).
Providing access to clean water for homes and businesses makes the water supply industry a vital utility sector with high levels of stability. In contrast, it could potentially be dangerous due to societal and environmental problems, particularly the well-being of the customer who directly uses the water that the businesses supply. Hence, companies in the water supply industry must therefore uphold their social responsibility to their customer, who is a crucial stakeholder. Nha Be Water Supply Joint Stock Company The Nha Be Water Supply Joint Stock Company (Nha Be WASUCO/NBW) began operations 2 on February 1, 2007, following the equitization of the Nha Be Branch under Saigon Water Corporation (SAWACO) in 2005.
The company provides construction consultancy for water supply and drainage works, management and development of water supply systems, and supply of clean water for consumption and production needs in District 4, District 7, Nha Be, and Can Gio. Besides, it is a unit that consistently actively participates in social activities that have a variety of practical meanings, in addition to effective production and business operations and well-performing economic and political tasks. NBW has been growing and making an active contribution to community development with the criterion and principle of "One value, one belief" and "Dedicating and attentive customer care. Research objectives The study aims to investigate the CSR activities that Nha Be WASUCO has been conducting toward customers, evaluate their benefits and drawbacks, and then propose a recommendation for addressing its shortcomings for better CSR practices in the future.
Additionally, the specific objectives are to RO1: To conduct a literature review of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). RO2: To investigate CSR activities toward customers at Nha Be WASUCO JSC in HCMC. RO3: To propose a recommendation for the improvement of CSR implementation toward customers at Nha Be WASUCO JSC in HCMC. Research questions The study aims to answer the following research questions: RQ1: What are the current CSR activities toward customers at Nha Be WASUCO in HCMC? RQ2: How important are Nha Be WASUCO's increased CSR activities to customers? RQ3: How can Nha Be WASUCCO's CSR activities for customers be improved? 3 1.
Scope of the study The study focuses on the CSR practices of a water supply company, Nha Be WASUCO, in Ho Chi Minh City. Based on the stakeholder's theory, the study only considers the customer's perspective in ensuring consumer benefits. Furthermore, the study examines and evaluates the historical performance of CSR implementation at Nha Be WASUCO to identify areas for future development and improvement. Research methodology This study uses both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
With a qualitative research approach, the author examines secondary information gathered from Books, articles focusing on the CSR topic, and the financial reports and data about CSR activities and policy from Nha Be WASUCO. Besides, questionnaires for quantitative research will be created through face-to-face interviews with professionals and the company’s managers in the field of social responsibility. Once completed, the questionnaire will be sent to customers who have been using NBW's products and services in the region. After gathering data, the researcher utilizes SPSS software for testing the scale and descriptive statistics method to enable contemplating and evaluating NBW customers' statements about the social responsibility that the company is carrying out toward them.
Analysis, comparison, and evaluation of NBW's accomplishments and weaknesses are carried out using the data acquired, in conjunction with research theories. Hence, the study comes up with recommendations for better CSR practices of Nha Be WASUCO toward customers. Research structure ● Introduction – This chapter provides an overview of the study. ● Literature Review - This chapter presents previous research and theory concerning the 4 concept of CSR.
● Methodology - This chapter presents the methodology applied in this dissertation by following the Research Onion framework of Saunders et al. (2019) ● Data analysis - This chapter mostly focuses on the analysis of primary and secondary data that were gathered to fulfill the research objective. ● Conclusion – This chapter addresses the research questions and presents the findings, followed by a recommendation for NBW and conclusions. Research ethics To protect the confidentiality of the research findings, research ethical guidelines were of the utmost importance.
This dissertation is grounded in actual data, information, and acknowledged academic documents. All things will be following the rules and guidelines of the University of Bolton (Appendix 1). Corporate Social Responsibility 2. Definition Nowadays, Corporate Social Responsibility is a crucial area of study for corporate ethics, and it is defined as the interaction between businesses and society (D'Aprile and Mannarini, 2012).