Can Social License Theory Explain the Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Community Engagement (CE)? The New Ghanaian Petrochemical Industry Context

Corporations are currently anticipated to engage communities via corporate responsibilities that are far from legal compulsion and profit intent to attracting goodwill. This originated CSR where corporate sponsorships are directed to interest communities for social acceptance. This study explores how social license theory can be extended in the new Ghanaian petrochemical industry context to improve corporate social engagement. Using interviews as the method of data collection, the purposive sampling method obtained 20 useable responses for this qualitative study. The study found that the Ghanaian oil companies are financially oriented with very little CSR intent as they take advantage of the CSR illiteracy of the community. What communities can do to supporting the social license process was also a prominent empirical question suggested for answers.