The Ethical Imperative of CSR Practice and Disclosure by Firms in Nigeria Delta Swamplands

Abstract

As a mono-product economy, Nigeria relies mostly on oil revenue. However, the oil exploration activities of firms operating in the Niger Delta Region (NDR) have left in its wake tales of devastation, poverty and misery. This, no doubt, has created Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues in the region. This research, therefore, focuses on critically evaluating the importance of ethics in CSR practice and disclosure by firms operating in Nigeria Delta Swamplands.

While CSR is becoming more popular in developed societies with strong institutional frameworks, there is a relatively low level of awareness and selective application of international guidelines to support CSR practice in Nigeria effectively. More importantly, having identified the lack of CSR institutional framework for Nigeria, this study attempts to develop a set of context-specific, ethically-driven CSR guidelines based on globally accepted best practices that can motivate improved CSR ethical conduct of firms operating in Nigeria.

The research adopts institutional theory as the main theoretical foundation, complemented by stakeholder and legitimacy theories. Also, qualitative research methodology is adopted to evaluate the primary data collected through semi-structured interviews, and thereafter, analysed with the Nvivo 12 software. Furthermore, the study adopts an inductive, interpretivist philosophical paradigm that reveals deep phenomenological insights into what participants in the study consider as relevant characteristics in developing a set of guidelines for ethical CSR practice by organisations in Nigeria. The findings of this study reveal that most firms operating in the NDR of Nigeria are not socially and ethically responsible. As a result, the study’s contribution to knowledge highlights the need for and develops a set of context-specific CSR ethical guidelines and transparency benchmark to promote ethical CSR practice in Nigeria.

Date of Award	7 Feb 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Winchester
Supervisor	Denise Hewlett (Supervisor) & Alan Murray (Supervisor)