CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF QUOTED CONGLOMERATES IN NIGERIA

Abstract
The study examined the impact of corporate social responsibility on the financial performance of Quoted Conglomerates in Nigeria. The research design adopted by the study is correlational and the population constitutes of the eight (8) conglomerate companies quoted on the Nigeria Stock Exchange as at 31st December 2011. Due to the data availability of the companies and the fact that they are few in number, the study uses census approach. The study uses secondary data and the instrument used for the collection of the data is documentation. The data used are extracted from the annual reports of the conglomerates, NSE factbooks and Daily official lists of the NSE official lists of the NSE. The data is for the period of 6 years ranging from 2006-2011. The study used Multiple Regression Model as the techniques of analysis using SPSS 16.0 software. The study found that two of the independent variables (i.e. ER and CP) have significant positive impacts and other one (i.e. EMS) negative impact. In line with the findings of the study, we conclude that corporate social responsibility plays a significant role on the profitability of conglomerates in Nigeria. The study therefore recommends that companies should embark on more rendering of social responsibility as this could leads to more profitability improvement. Regulatory authorities should come up with clearly defined regulation on how to go about social responsibility issues of the companies and the government should ensure full implementations of the regulations.     
 TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page————————————————————————————————– Declaration————————————————————————————————i Certification———————————————————————————————-ii Acknowledgements————————————————————————————-iii Abstract ————————————————————————————————–v Table of Contents—————————————————————————————vi List of Tables ——————————————————————————————–ix   CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study—————————————————————————1 1.2 Statement of the Research Problem—————————————————————2 1.3 Research Questions———————————————————————————-3 1.4 Objectives of the Study —————————————————————————–4 1.5 Research Hypotheses——————————————————————————–4 1.6 Significance of the Study—————————————————————————5 1.7 Scope of the Study———————————————————————————-5 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE  2.1 Introduction——————————————————————————————–6 2.2 The Concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) —————————————-6 2.3 Historical Origin of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ———————————–8 2.4 Economic Drivers of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ———————————-9 2.5 Measurement of CSR and CFP ——————————————————————–12 2.6 Reviewed of Empirical Studies on CSR and CFP ———————————————-15 2.7 Theoretical Framework of the Study ————————————————————-31  2.8 Chapter Summary ———————————————————————————–35 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY  3.1 Introduction——————————————————————————————-36 3.2 Research Design ————————————————————————————-36 3.3 Population and Sampling Design——————————————————————-36 3.4 Sources of Data Collection and Method of Data Collection————————————37 3.5 Techniques of Data Analysis————————————————————————37 3.8 Chapter Summary ————————————————————————————38 CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS 4.1 Introduction—————————————————————————————–39 4.2 Descriptive Statistics of the Variables———————————————————–39 4.3 Correlation Matrix of the Variables————————————————————–40 4.4 Regression Results of the study——————————————————————41 4.5 Model Summary with Collinearity Test———————————————————42 4.6 Summary of the Findings————————————————————————–43 4.7 Policy Implications of the Findings————————————————————–44 4.8 Chapter Summary———————————————————————————–44 CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Summary———————————————————————————————45 5.2 Conclusions——————————————————————————————45 5.3 Recommendations———————————————————————————–45 5.4 Suggestions for Further Research—————————————————————–46 Bibliography————————————————————————————-46  Appendices‟ ————————————————————————————-62   LIST OF TABLES    Table 2.6.1 Synopses on Corporate Social Responsibility Studies         30   Table 2.6.2 Other Studies on Corporate Social Responsibility                           30   Table 3.5.1 Variables of the Study on Corporate Social Responsibility     37   Table 4.2.1 Descriptive Statistics of the Variables                                 39   Table 4.3.1 Correlation Matrix                                                                            40   Table 4.4.1 Regression Result of the Study                                           41   Table 4.5.1 Model Summary with Collinearity Test                               42

                                                         CHAPTER ONE                                       INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the Study Conglomerates are often large and multinational companies in nature that embarks on various types of businesses. In Nigeria, they are under the regulation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and are mainly established to accomplish synergies, diversification and earnings growth. In early 1960s conglomerates were very popular in developed countries, but due to the difficulty associated with managing unrelated business units effectively they are now less popular. In developing countries like Nigeria, apart from the problem of managing unrelated units, conglomerates also face the problem of managing conflicts with the immediate environment in which the business units are established. In an effort to address that most of the conglomerates embark on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).    CSR simply means that companies in the cause of discharging their day to day activities for the purpose of profit realization should also take into consideration the effect of their activities on the members of the society in which the companies are residing and the environmental sustainability of their operations. The origin of CSR in the Nigerian context can be traced back to the presence of unbridled of oil in the southern part of Nigeria (South-South Geo-Political Zone). The discovery of the oil brought a serious conflict between the companies and the environment. On one hand, members of the community are complaining of environmental degradation that led to various types of hardships and on the other, the companies are not willing to accept that they are the major cause of the hardships. These conflicts of interest led to the emergence and implementation of CRS. The overall objective being protecting human rights against corporate abuses and on that basis various legislations designed to regulate business and industry in Nigeria were come up with that includes recognition of public interests by companies (Gunu, 2008). There are various views in the literature on CRS. Some authorities like Friedman (1962) are of the view that the concern of businesses should be profit making and any activity to deter that should be stayed away by companies because no legal and democratic backing to pursue such activities. Others like Freedman and Liedtka (1991) are of the view that companies are responsible for all their stakeholders and should therefore take greater responsibility for the society at large and seek to solve social and environmental problems in their market place.  Today, most corporate managers believe that business operations should go beyond the simple prospect of money making. Thus, managers should try as much as possible to incorporate the interest of the employee, business partners, customers, shareholders and the society at large into their decision making which offers the best guarantee for consistent profitability. This view in favour of CRS implementation creates difficulty on measuring the real effect of the implementation on consistent profitability of companies. This has become more compounded as various ratios for measuring profitability exists.  Against the above backdrop, this study is undertaken with a view to evaluating the effect that implementing CRS has on the performance of conglomerates quoted on the NSE.