THE INFLUENCE OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ON BRAND LOYALTY IN THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS SECTOR DURING THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC: A CASE OF ECONET WIRELESS ZIMBABWE

Abstract

This research paper investigated the influence of corporate social responsibility on brand loyalty. The objectives used in the study were to determine the relationship between corporate social responsibility and brand loyalty at Econet Wireless to establish whether clients are aware of CSR activities of Econet Wireless or not. Causal research design was used for the first objective and descriptive research design was used for the second objective. Simple random sampling technique was used to determine the elements to be included in the sample and a sample size of 384 calculated using Saunders formulae was used. The researcher used questionnaires to collect data which were administrated electronically in line with COVID-19 regulations. The findings of the research revealed that The Cronbach Alpha coefficient to test the reliability of the measurement scales was used to determine the impact of corporate social responsibility (employee, ethical, legal and social responsibility) on brand loyalty. The reliability constructs accepted should be above 0.7. Henceforth, all the four variables were reliable as they have Cronbach Alpha values above 0.7 With the exception of social responsibility which is at 0. 682.. Regression analysis was performed to test the predictive power of CSR practices (independent variable) on brand loyalty. The results showed that there is a strong positive relationship between CSR and brand loyalty. This was shown by the standardized coefficient which is 0.618, (p=.00, t=15.263). This indicates that brand loyalty is influenced to a greater extent by corporate social responsibility as shown by the Beta value of 0.618, which is above 0.6 the standard acceptable. More so legal responsibility contributes more to brand loyalty with a mean value of 21.5885 followed by ethical responsibility with a mean value of 18.7422, followed by employee responsibility with a mean value of 18.0052 for employee responsibility, and lastly. The results discovered that there is a strong inverse relationship between brand loyalty and employee relationship. This is shown by the standardized coefficient which is -0.532, (p=.00, t=-12.293). This indicates that brand loyalty is not influenced by corporate social responsibility as shown by the Beta value of -0.518. In addition, it means that a negative change in brand loyalty will cause a negative change in brand loyalty and the opposite is equally true .CSR practices and brand loyalty has a correlation coefficient of 0.618** which is positive, moderate and statistically significant [r=0.618 ,p<0.01 (p=0.001).High levels of CSR practices are positively associated with moderate levels of improvement in sales performance as loyal customers are overwhelmingly more profitable than other customers because loyal customers do more for a business than purely generating revenue during purchases. Hypothesis testing was done in order to choose amongst two competing hypotheses about the value of a population parameter... The hypothesis testing reveals that clearly there is a strong positive relationship between CSR and brand loyalty. This is shown by the standardized coefficient which is 0.618, (p=.00, t=15.360). This indicates that brand loyalty is influenced to a lesser extent by corporate social responsibility as shown by the Beta value of 0.618, which is below 0.7. In addition, it means that a positive change in CSR will cause little or no change in brand loyalty and the opposite is equally true, therefore H1 was rejected.