CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF QUOTED CONGLOMERATES IN NIGERIA

Description

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.