Corporate Social Responsibility and Profitability in the Banking Sector: The Case of Selected Private Banks in Ethiopia

Abstract

In this article, we explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility and profitability with particular reference to Ethiopian financial industry. In line with this, the paper investigated the practice of corporate social responsibility and its impact on profitability in two private banks in Ethiopia. The study used two sampling phases. The first one is to sample out the two banks among the sixteen private banks operated in the country and the second phase is to select number of respondents within the selected banks. According to National Bank of Ethiopia, (NBE, 2020) annual report among the sixteen private commercial banks operated in the country, six of them were operated in the industry for more than 20 years and two banks namely Dashen and United banks were randomly selected for the study. The study used questionnaires as an instrument for data collection and the Cronbach alpha test was used to test the reliability of the instrument. Correlation analysis was carried out to identify the nature of strength and direction of the relationship between the independent variables (philanthropic, ethical, legal and economic responsibilities) and the dependent variables (profitability), regression analysis was also employed to determine the degree in which the dependent variable can be predicated or explained from the independent variables. The finding reveals that ethical, philanthropic, legal and economic responsibilities of CSR dimension have a positive and significant impact on profitability of the banks. Furthermore, the overall finding of the study suggested that CSR practice of banks has a significant impact on the level of their profitability. The study recommends that banks should improve their efforts exerted towards their CSR practice in order to enhance their profitability.