This chapter investigates why organisations pursue the particular Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities they do, tracing the answer back to the personal values, moral convictions, and life histories of the business leaders who found or head them. Using a historical case-study approach and sustainability reports from four multinational companies operating in Uganda — Toyota Motor Corporation (via CFAO Motors Uganda), Unilever Uganda, Bewley’s Coffee and Tea Company, and the Spear Group of Companies — the authors apply pattern matching, explanation building, and time-series analysis to show that a firm’s CSR programme functions as an extension of its founder’s or manager’s own ethical commitments. The chapter introduces “The Humanism of CSR Model” as a framework for understanding how individual human character becomes institutionalised as organisational CSR practice.

This chapter was originally published in Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure in Developing and Emerging Economies (Uzoechi Nwagbara, Samuel O. Idowu & Yahaya Alhassan, Eds.), Springer, Cham, 2024, pp. 21–44 (CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance series). It is a traditionally published, copyright-protected book chapter — not open access — and is indexed here as a reference entry with full credit to the original authors and publisher. The complete chapter is available from Springer via the DOI link below.