CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

All nations in the world survive by one means or the other. Some rely on tourism for survival, while others depend solely on agriculture. There are however some that are fortunate enough to be blessed with mineral resources such as oil and gas, which bring in a lot of revenue. At a time, Nigeria depended mainly on agricultural products like groundnut, cocoa, palm produce and others to survive. This was before the discovery of oil in 1956 at Olobiri in Rivers State. Today, the main sources of revenue to the country are oil and gas. The blessing also came with its attendant problems and these include environmental degradation, damage of economic crops and fish ponds, pollution of sources of drinking water and general hazards to the health of the people in the oil and gas producing areas.

The definition of this concept actually depends on how those who believe in it and those who do not, see it. People see it from different perspectives. To those that believe in it, it is the responsibility to plan and manage an organization’s relationship with everybody involved in or affected by all its activities in all its ramifications of operations. It is a beneficial social investment and they believe that a socially responsible company is that, that do not take actions that might be perceived as unreasonable, callous or insensitive by the public.  On the other hand, those who do not believe in it, strongly argue that business cannot be “responsible”, only people can have responsibilities.  To them, it is a loss of accountability to shareholders who have invested their hard earned resources to make profit.  (Ogbemi, 2015). The truth is that profit making should not be at the expense of the public. Profit making should be fair and human.

The concept of CSR is concerned with critical issues that concerns environmental policies  and actions.  Its main business is about organizations giving back to societies where they make profit.  According to Zadek (2000) organizations take part in it not only to attract good image but also to bring in stakeholders into the main stream of the business.  CSR usually encourages mutual understanding between organizations and the communities where they operate. (Keinert, 2008; Matten & Moon, 2008; Monowar & Humphrey, 2013). In this contemporary times, the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility is now an important part of business organizations which encourages a lot of gains in the future.  (Brik, Rettah & Mellahi, 2010; Carroll & Shabana, 2010; Halme & Laurila, 2009; Kemper, Schilke, Reimann, Wang & Brettel, 2013; Monowar & Humphrey, 2013; Porter & Kramer, 2006; Rodriguez; Melo & Mansouri, 2011). Its importance has also come to the fore as most companies and organisations have now come to embrace the concept.

Kurucz, Colbert, and Wheeler (2008) listed and categorized the organization being involved in CSR as follows. These are cost and risk reduction, gaining competitive advantage;  developing reputation and legitimacy; and seeking win-win outcomes through synergistic value creation. In contrast to what Kurucz, Colbert, and Wheeler (2008) did, Carroll (1991) developed a model that consists of four other kinds of social responsibilities namely: economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic. Similarly, other dimensions of CSR activities include:  Profit Concerns - Economic Responsibility, Legal Concerns - Legal Responsibility, Ethical Concerns - Ethical Responsibility and Voluntary action Concerns - Philanthropic Responsibility (Olajide, 2014).