Social responsibility in the rural businesses of the North-West Province of South Africa: coerced or business-driven?

Social responsibility and rural businesses seem to be unaligned in the North-West Province of South Africa. This paper establishes how rural businesses in the study area apply social responsibility issues in business. The rationale is to show the importance of incorporating social responsibility components to rural businesses to enhance their sustainability. This study used a mixed methods approach in which quantitative research dealt with numerical accounts and qualitative research was involved with non-numeric descriptions. The research tool was a questionnaire. Closed-ended and open-ended questions were used to ensure that the responses address the study needs. A total of 107 willing businesses were investigated. Tables and graphs were used quantitative data while themes were formed in the qualitative section. Empirical findings show that these rural businesses tend to perform in large proportions with regards to social responsibility activities that are compulsory to retain their business licenses. They show a tendency to ignore, or do little on the optional social responsibility activities. It is recommended that these rural businesses should embark on all social responsibility activities without neglecting others. They should make social responsibility part of their strategic mission. They lack conscience of social responsibility. In their activities, they aim to comply with the laws for licenses. This study intends to make them aware that they have started to embark on social responsibility by pointing out the activities they do, and then encourage them to increase by including the ones that they have not been doing in large scale.   Key words: Rural businesses, social responsibility, North-West Province of South Africa, poor management, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).