SECURITY AND WEALTH AS DETERMINANTS OF ACTUALIZATION OF THE SOCIAL BOTTOM LINE AMONG SELECTED LISTED FIRMS IN KENYA
SECURITY AND WEALTH AS DETERMINANTS OF ACTUALIZATION OF THE SOCIAL BOTTOM LINE AMONG SELECTED LISTED FIRMS IN KENYA
Kimacia Gitau
ABSTRACT
This study intended to analyze Security and Wealth as factors determining actualization of the Social Bottom line among selected listed firms in Kenya. This formed the general objective of the study. In the background of the study the researcher acknowledges that in Kenya, there are no set standards on the manner in which firms compensate the communities within which they operate. Currently, sustainable business practices are voluntary for firms, many of which operate at the expense of the immediate communities and environment around them. This has been made clear by the well-publicized confrontations between several mining firms and the communities they operate within. Also, insufficient research, if any, has been done within the country to analyze the importance of triple bottom line reporting to firms and in particular, the Social bottom line. This has posed a research gap in this field. Descriptive research design and quantitative analysis were used in the study. Descriptive research design was chosen as the researcher wished to ascertain and describe the characteristics of variables in a situation. It also enabled the researcher to generalize the findings to a larger population and it aimed at describing the influence of the independent variables on actualization of the social bottom line. The study population was 448 individuals (middle level managers) from the 64 listed firms in Kenya. Using the recommended formula to calculate a desired sample size when the population is less than 10,000, the sample size for the study came to a total of 208 middle level managers from within the listed firms in Kenya. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the sample. Data was collected by use of self-administered questionnaires. Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviation and frequency distribution were used to analyze the data. In addition, the study used multiple regression analysis to assess the influence of the independent variables on the dependent variable. The study found that security and wealth & income are important factors in explaining the actualization of social bottom-line in organizations. Security had a positive coefficient in the regression model when used as a factor determining actualization of social bottom line (β1 = .1802) and has a t-statistic of 2.907 which is significant at 5% significant level. Wealth & income had a positive coefficient in the regression model (β2 = .4427) and had a t-statistic of 2.820 which is significant at 5% significant level. The study recommends that in order for the listed firms to actualize the social bottom line, there is need to uphold peace, engage in education improvement, get involved in empowerment of women and have greater regard for social justice and intergenerational equity.
