Impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate image of Ooredoo Maldives / Hifza Ibrahim

Problem Background

In the recent years Business organizations have started to give more importance to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and have been increasing their social activities to enhance the corporate profile gives customers a good image of the company, reducing the impact of any damage that may occur among different areas of business activities. (Hansen and Christensen ,2003). Due to this, Businesses are using CSR as an opportunity to prevent negative media focus.

The new dynamic era has brought a radical change to the relationship between business organizations and society. Companies are more eager to engage in the practice of Corporate Siegel (2001) believes Social Responsibility and it created a vigorous competition among firms to adopt best CSR strategy and Policies are being amended to increase their level of contribution to the needs of society. The emphasis on CSR is forcing organizations to indulge in the wellbeing of the society. Multinational Corporations (MNC) are being recognized for their work to the community and consumers are more favorable to them (Thomas, 2003).

This research is aimed to understand the correlation between (CSR) and corporate image in Ooredoo Maldives. Maldives being a developing country is new to the concept and still only grazing the borderline since it became familiar in the business sector. Successful business companies in Maldives like Allied Insurance, State Trading Organization, Dhiraagu, Bank of Maldives are nowadays more active towards it. Study done by UNDP (2006) on Social Responsibility Practices in Maldives in the year 2006 showed that CSR was not understood well by Maldivian businesses. UNDP (2006) further explained social welfare practices in Maldives ad said that the relationship between NGO's and business firms were weak and the practices were mostly seen in private sector. Also a paper done by Shareef (2014) as "understanding CSR in Maldivian Context" also concludes that CSR is poorly understood by Maldivian Business Managers. This paper presents the current CSR practices and projects of Ooredoo Maldives and the role it plays to forge the corporate image of the company.

Ooredoo Maldives Formerly known as Wataniya Telecom Maldives, Ooredoo Maldives is one of the leading telecom company in Maldives. Ooredoo Maldives was established on 1st August 2005. The company is established under an international communication group of Qatar, " Ooredoo". They provide data services, wireless voice services as per customers' requirements. Ooredoo is known for quality services and products and is quick to compete with Dhiraagu, their sole competitor in maldives. Since their launching oredoo has achieved being the fastest 4G network in maldives (Oredoo, 2017).