The quest for CSR: Mapping responsible and irresponsible practices in an intra-organizational context in Ghana’s gold mining industry

This paper explores the positive and negative social impact of business relationships in the Ghanian gold mining industry. We adopted an in-depth longitudinal case study approach to explore the responsible and irresponsible behaviour of dominant stakeholders in Ghana’s mining sector. Exploiting unique primary data collected from various stakeholders allowed us to identify and map the evolution of CSR behaviour through the theory of planned behaviour over three distinct time periods since Ghana’s independence of 1957. Findings from our study suggest that the state and multinational enterprises as key stakeholders in the network of business relationship played a critical role in paving the way for the indigenous people to participate more fully in the mining business. We argue that local participation in the industry’s activities has direct social impact, but there is further need to explore the dynamics underpinning a network of relationship.