An Empirical Evaluation of the Extent of Responsiveness to Corporate Social Responsibility by Some Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria

Abstract

The theory of "Social Darwinism” which was unfortunately misapplied to economic (corporate world) and used to justify ruthless competition and pursuit of profit for the interest of the stockholders without regards to ethics and morals, and the impact of corporate activities on the rest of the members of the society (stakeholders) and the environment took its negative toll on the business world. Corporate Social Responsibility, also known as "corporate citizenship” or "business conscience seeks to challenge the unethical business practices such as unhealthy competition, overexploitation of natural capital, pollution of the environment and the undue primacy given to the stockholders as the only legitimate group to which the corporation is indebted. Proponents argue that apart from the stockholders, there are many other groups that interface and equally have stakes in corporations just like the stockholders, and therefore, have right to expect returns from the organisations. The objective of this study, given the problem of voluntary nature of CSR, was to find out the extent to which manufacturing organisations in Nigeria respond to CSR initiatives. The study method was a survey designed to elicit information through structured questionnaires from the staff and customers of these companies. Data analyses were done using descriptive statistics and bar charts. Hypotheses were tested using the Mann-Whitney U statistics. The findings show that the studied manufacturing companies in Nigeria are not significantly CSR-compliant. The study recommends that corporate organisations in Nigeria should develop internal corporate policy or regulation to neutralise the impact of the voluntary nature of CSR over its implementation in companies and thus force or bind themselves (companies) to embrace Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a means of achieving customer loyalty, competitive advantage and improved profitability.