Abstract

The study examined the impact of corporate social responsibility on the financial performance of Quoted oil and gas in Nigeria. The total population for the study is 200 staff of selected oil and gas companies in Delta State. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made up machinery engineers, drilling logistic supervisors, field service engineers and construction managers were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies. 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.

 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      Background of the study

Oil and gas are often large and multinational companies in nature that embarks on various types of businesses. In developing countries like Nigeria, apart from the problem of managing unrelated units, oil and gas 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 oil and gas 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 oil and gas.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

For oil and gas to succeed financially, they must have to produce goods that could enable them generate sufficient profits. Profits making is a function of so many factors, some of which are indigenous and others exogenous. Amongst the exogenous factors are operational interruption caused by hosting community of the oil and gas. This is due to the concern of the community over negative and potential negative effects that businesses brought to the community. The effect ranges from environmental degradations to societal conflicts as a result of the businesses‟ activities. In an effort to overcome the existing conflicts between oil and gas and the hosting environments the idea of CRS was advocated. While that can be considered as a welcome development that avenue for conflicts resolution exists, but the avenue creates more concern over the implementation and the quantification of the benefits to both the community and the company. Against the above backdrop, there is every need to evaluate empirically the effect of adopting CSR on the profitability of oil and gas in Nigeria with a view of ascertaining whether its company plays any significant role or not.

1.3 OBJECTTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is effect of corporate social responsibility accounting on the financial performance of quoted oil quoted oil and gas companies in Nigeria.  But for the successful completion of the study; the researcher intends to achieve the following sub-objectives.

1.   To evaluate whether societal expenditure significantly affect financial performance of oil and gas in Nigeria.

2.   To evaluate whether environmental expenditure significantly affect financial performance of oil and gas in Nigeria.

3.    To determine the type of relationship that exists between employees’ benefit cost and the firms’ financial performance.

4.   To ascertain whether corporate social responsibility plays significant role in profitability of oil and gas in Nigeria

1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

For the successful completion of the study, the following research hypotheses were formulated by the researcher; 

H0:  environmental expenditure does not significantly affect financial performance of oil and gas in Nigeria

H1:  environmental expenditure significantly affects financial performance of oil and gas in Nigeria

H02: there is no relationship that exists between employees’ benefit cost and the firms’ financial performance

H2: there is relationship that exists between employees’ benefit cost and the firms’ financial performance

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is believed that at the completion of the study, it will serves as a pioneering effort in evaluating the effect of CRS on the financial performance of oil and gas in Nigeria. This would assist the oil and gas in shaping their policy on CRS as it would reveal to them the extent to which it affects their performance. It would assist government in settling conflicts and disputes between companies and the hosting environment. This could be possible by coming up with an acceptable benchmark as to what should be expended for CRS to the hosting community. The study should serve as a reference point to those that want to research further into the area. It would enable them have more insight into the subject matter under study.

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study covers effect of corporate social responsibility accounting on the financial performance of quoted oil and gas companies in Nigeria. The researcher encounters some constrain which limited the scope of the study;

 a) AVAILABILITY OF RESEARCH MATERIAL: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study   

b) TIME: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study.

c) Organizational privacy: Limited Access to the selected auditing firm makes it difficult to get all the necessary and required information concerning the activities

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

CORPORATE: A corporation is a company or group of people authorized to act as a single entity (legally a person) and recognized as such in law. Early incorporated entities were established by charter (i.e. by an ad hoc act granted by a monarch or passed by a parliament or legislature).

SOCIAL: Living organisms including humans are social when they live collectively in interacting populations, whether they are aware of it, and whether the interaction

RESPONSIBILITY: the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management. 2. An instance of being responsible: The responsibility for this mess is yours!

ACCOUNTING: Accounting is the systematic and comprehensive recording of financial transactions pertaining to a business, and it also refers to the process of summarizing, analyzing and reporting these transactions to oversight agencies and tax collection entities.

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: Financial Performance in broader sense refers to the degree to which financial objectives being or has been accomplished and is an important aspect of finance risk management. It is the process of measuring the results of a firm's policies and operations in monetary terms.

OIL AND GAS: Oil and natural gas are naturally occurring chemicals that are made up of just two elements carbon and hydrogen. The class of chemicals based on carbon and hydrogen are called hydrocarbons. The simplest hydrocarbon, methane, is made up of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms.

1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows

Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), historical background, statement of problem, objectives of the study, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlights the theoretical framework on which the study is based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.  Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study

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