Abstract
Purpose: The current study sought to establish the strategic adoption of corporate social responsibility on performance of plastic manufacturing firms in Kenya.
Methodology: The study adopted a descriptive survey research design and targeted plastic manufacturing firms registered by Kenya Association of Manufactures. A total of 23 firms were targeted where one manager, two supervisors and two junior staff from the strategic department of the respective firms were involved in the study making a total of 115 respondents. A 5 - point Likert scale questionnaire containing close ended questions was used for collecting data. The data collected was analyzed by employing both inferential analysis and descriptive statistics using MS Excel and SPSS software V22. A pilot study was conducted on three firms to assess the validity and reliability of the data collection instrument.
Results: The results and findings of the analysis were presented in form of tables and figures. The study established that Environmental Conservation Initiatives, Ethical Labor Practices, Business Operators Involvement positively and significantly affects performance of plastic manufacturing firms in Kenya as depicted by Beta values of 2.874, 0.167 and 0.251 respectively. This implies that increase in one unit of each of the variables results to an increase in the performance levels with the respective beta values. Philanthropic initiatives however was found to influence performance but to insignificant levels.
Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommended that there is a need for plastic manufacturing firm to enhance their environmental conservation initiatives as an CSR activity, to promote ethical labor practices as an CSR activity, to enhance the level of involvement of business operators in CSR activities and to promote philanthropic initiatives as an CSR activity since the practices positively influences the performance levels of the firms.