Examining the Effect of Positive CSR Regulation - Research Proposal Example

School: Topic: Examining the effect of positive CSR regulation in stabilising commercial confidence in oil producing areas of Nigeria Title: Lecturer: Date of Submission: Contents 1.0 Introduction 3 1.1 Background to the study 3 1.2 Purpose of the study 4 1.3 Aim and objectives 4 1.4 Motivation and Significance of the study 5 1.5 Research questions 6 2.0 Review of Literature 7 2.1 Overview of existing CSR regulations and laws in Nigeria 7 2.2 The role of CSR regulation in enforcing corporate citizenship accountability 10 2.3 Impact of CSR reporting on companies 12 3.0 Methodology 15 3.1 Research design 15 3.2 Research strategy 16 3.3 Criteria for considering studies for the review 17 3.4 Search strategy 18 3.5 Methods of review 18 3.6 Ethical consideration 19 3.7 Data analysis plan 19 References 20 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Background to the study Media reports on agitations in oil producing areas of Nigeria over unfair treatment by oil companies and government is not a new phenomenon at all. In recent times, issues of extremist activities such as Boko Haram in Nigeria make the phenomenon a more serious one. This is because unresolved sentiments between local people against companies and government could go as long as fuelling extremist attacks. Meanwhile, given the fact that most local level agitations have come about due to dissatisfaction of how much communities get from oil companies comes to suggest that these companies are doing very little in terms of honouring their social responsibilities to the communities.1 This therefore comes to suggest that one of the best ways by which the issue local agitations can be solved so as to build commercial confidence of indigenes is for companies to take up their corporate social responsibilities (CSR) very seriously.2 When the issue is viewed from the perspective of what companies need to do, it would be said that the research will take a non-doctrinal approach to its study. However, there are those who have looked at the issue from a doctrinal perspective by questioning what law makers have done wrong so far in bringing the issues to the level it currently is. This point is made against the background that even though there are laws and regulations guiding the performance of CSR by companies, many legal analysts have said that enforcement has been a major challenge in ensuring that companies are forced to do what they are expected to do.3 1.2 Purpose of the study Given the background given above, the proposed study will be undertaken with the aim of critiquing CSR regulations currently in Nigeria. To have an insightful and well balanced critique, the case of CSR regulation enforcement in Nigeria will be compared to what prevails in other parts of the world, particularly in India. This is because India recently passed a law, enforcing mandatory reporting on CSR issues by companies. 1.3 Aim and objectives Once the purpose of the study is pursued, the researcher hopes to achieve the aim of examining the effect of positive CSR regulation which is backed by effective enforcement laws in stabilising commercial confidence in oil producing areas of Nigeria. For this aim to be achieved, the following specific objectives will be targeted: 1. To examine how effective current CSR regulations in Nigeria are in observing corporate citizenship activities of companies 2. To identify the extent to which existing CSR regulations in Nigeria enforce corporate citizenship accountability. 3. To compare and contrast India’s CSR regulations enforcing mandatory reporting on CSR issues with what prevails in Nigeria. 4. To determine the extent to which a socio-legal approach to CSR regulation in Nigeria can boost commercial confidence among Nigeria oil communities. 1.4 Motivation and Significance of the study The selected research topic was motivated by the need to finding lasting solution to agitations and protests that have characterised the relationship between local community members and oil companies in Nigeria. With this said, particular reference can be made to Niger Delta regions where series of attacks have been reported on oil companies by local people.4 From the perspective of the local people, the problem may seem all-social but indeed the researcher sees a very strong legal composition as laws could be used in making the companies more responsible towards the communities. Once this study is successfully completed, it is going to yield several academic and practical advantages in the area of CSR. In the first place, the study will add to existing literature on CSR regulation but will do this from a socio-legal perspective by combining the social effects and legal effects of CSR on companies and the communities in which the companies operate. This means that the outcome of the study could serve as the basis for building conceptual framework in any future studies that seeks to explore CSR not just from a social perspective but a legal on as well. Secondly, the comparative analysis between Nigeria and India will pave the way for policy makers to understand where things have gone wrong so far as far as CSR regulation in Nigeria is concerned. With this known, it will be possible to make recommendations on the best ways in which governments can made amends in enforcing positive CSR practices among oil companies in Nigeria. 1.5 Research questions 1. How effective are existing CSR regulations in observing corporate citizenship activities of companies? 2. To what extent do existing CSR regulations enforce corporate citizenship accountability? 3. What lessons can be learnt from India’s CSR regulations enforcing mandatory reporting on CSR issues? 4. To what extent will socio-legal approach to CSR regulation in Nigeria stabilise commercial confidence among Nigerian oil communities? 2.0 Review of Literature 2.1 Overview of existing CSR regulations and laws in Nigeria There cannot be a single accepted definition to what CSR is but it is commonly accepted that it entails moral obligations performed by companies as part of avenues to promote viable societal values that generate peaceful atmosphere within the societies in which they operate.5 Because CSR contains the word ‘social’, it has often been thought that CSR is all about social interventions by companies but the theory of corporate responsibility actually outlines three dimensions of CSR which are social, economic and environmental responsibilities.6 Because CSR is often seen to be company’s moral obligation, hardly are they thought of as having legal perspectives but several analysts have said that this school of thought is wrong.7 Indeed the justification in the legal aspect of CSR can be seen in the fact that the world over, there are regulations and laws that guide companies in the performance of their CSR. In Nigeria, there are no specific laws that cater for CSR. This notwithstanding, there are several legislations that have been incorporated into provisions aimed at regulating the observance or practice of CSR.8 One such provision that can be cited is the Section 279 (4) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990. This section of the Act states that “the director of a company is to have regard in the performance of his functions includes the interests of the company’s employees in general as well as the interests of its members”.9 From this statement, it will be noted that the Act acknowledges that companies do not function in isolation and that they have stakeholders who are directly or indirectly affected by their activities.10 Critical among the stakeholders as identified from the quotation above are employees and other members of the public who have interest that must be met by the company. As the Section 279 (4) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990 caters for the people for whom and with whom the companies work, there are other isolated laws that focus on the environment. These laws are referred to as isolated because they were not prepared to directly guide companies in the performance of CSR.11 Rather, such laws in place to protect the environment are prepared as general environmental laws. Typical examples of such environmental laws that have guided companies in the performance of CSR roles towards the environment include Section 279 (4) of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990 and Harmful Waste (Special Criminal Provisions Act.12 as isolated and independent laws, each of them come with criminal sanctions for non-compliance. However, because they were not prepared to be direct regulations for companies’ CSR, there are no aspects of enforcement or measure for the performance of environmental duties as part of corporate citizenship programmes by companies whose activities affect the environment directly like oil exploration companies.13 2.2 The role of CSR regulation in enforcing corporate citizenship accountability Corporate citizenship has for long been seen as a moral obligation that companies carry. Because of this, the real extent of practice in most parts of the world including Nigeria has been to the prime discretion of companies. The case is even worse as there are no definite laws in Nigeria on CSR. The reason this is said is that because there are no laws defining the extent to which companies must honour all aspects of CSR, companies choose to engage in CSR to levels that they deem appropriate.14 This is however a situation that seriously affects corporate citizenship accountability. The reason for saying this is that with the absence of a definite law, no one really gets to measure how much CSR is enough. Because of this, company accountability in terms of CSR has been a subject to debate, subjective discretion and at times, confusion.15 For example whenever members of communities voice their displeasure at companies for doing very little in terms of corporate responsibility, the companies are always quick to come out with a form of defence by pointing to some activities or programmes they have carried out in the communities. The real question therefore becomes how much responsibility must be performed by companies to be considered enough. Presently, even though there is no definite CSR law in Nigeria, there is a bill on CSR before the National Assembly of Nigeria seeking to establish the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR Commission) to see to the formulation, implementation, and supervision of CSR among companies in Nigeria.16 There are many analysts who have said that the way forward to ensuring corporate citizenship accountability among companies is through an effective CSR regulation such as the CSR Bill.17 It has been suggested that with the presence of the law, it will be possible to clearly define the percentage of a company’s annual profits that should go into CSR.18 What is more, it will be possible to clearly establish modalities for dealing with the environment in cases where a company’s operations are found to directly impact on the environment.19 There are also some researchers who have indicated that the coming the CSR Bill will clearly define the punitive measures that should be taken against companies that disregard laws on CSR.20 Clearly, these are all points that suggest that a CSR regulation will be the way forward for enhancing corporate citizenship accountability. This is because even in cases of default, the public will not enchanted to take the law into their own hands, knowing very well that there are regulations to punish defaulters. 2.3 Impact of CSR reporting on companies In India, there has been a new law that makes CSR reporting mandatory for companies.21 This law has given room to extensive public debate on what the effect of CSR reporting could be on oil exploratory companies in places of the world such as Nigeria. This topic brings to the table the review of literature on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Reporting Framework. This framework has been used by several international companies as a guideline for focusing on internal organisational performance used as an indicator level for fostering a reductionist approach to managing sustainability issues.22 This is because the GRI reporting framework looks at company sustainability from a very holistic perspective comprising economic, environmental and social (labour) categories. For each of the categories, there are indicators where companies are actually marked or rated based on how well they fulfil the requirements of the indicators. Under economic category for example, there are indicators such as economic performance, market presence, and indirect economic impact.23 Environmental category also has indicators such as materials, energy, water, biodiversity, emissions, products and services, compliance, and transportation.24 Lastly, the social category looks at indicators such as employment, management relations, health and safety, training and education, equal opportunity, and equal remuneration. As much as the GRI reporting framework focusing on grading companies to know how sustainable they are, its major goal is to report the outcomes to the public so that members of the public can know how responsible companies are based on the three categories of CSR or sustainability.25 Analysing how it is important for companies to embrace the idea of CSR reporting through the use of GRI and other avenues such as the law in India, Franklin stressed that it gives companies high sense of goodwill among their stakeholders.26 By implication, companies have a lot to benefit from if their stakeholders, both internal and external ones can be aware of how much efforts they are putting in place to contribute to a sustainable society. When companies have positive goodwill among customers, chances that they will be assured of customer loyalty has been said to be very high.27 With this said, the review can be concluded on the note that if Nigeria adopts the approach of India to enforce the reporting of CSR by having a positive CSR regulation in place, it will ensure that both companies and the public benefit equally. 3.0 Methodology 3.1 Research design The study will be undertaken as a qualitative research method that employs the use of desk research. As part of the desk research, the researcher shall emphasise on using systematic literature review in sampling the outcomes of research works that have in the past been conducted on the current area of study. The rationale for selecting systematic literature review is in the advantage it offers the researcher in terms of expanding the scope of data collection. What this means is that through the use of systematic literature review, and for that matter desk researcher, the researcher will not be limited by way of scope of data collection as there will not be the need to define a limited research setting where data collection will take place.28 The level of impact that a failure to adopt standard CSR has in Nigerian oil producing communities will be looked at from the perspective of what other writers have done. 3.2 Research strategy Yin outlined six major research strategies that may be used for academic and professional research of this nature.29 Among the six, the researcher proposes to use a case study research strategy. Case study has been explained to be a type of research strategy where the researcher identifies a unique concept or problem within an area and subjects it to critical analysis through data collection.30 With the proposed study, the issue that will be analysed is the social and legal approach to CSR regulation in Nigeria. Because the study looks at both what companies can do right and what law makers can also do to enforce company level actions, it would be said that there will be both doctrinal and non-doctrinal approaches to the study as it looks at both the social dynamics and legal aspects of corporate citizenship. In the light of the above, both doctrinal and non-doctrinal research procedures will be used. The doctrinal procedure will asks what the law is on CSR. This means that there will be emphasis on analysing the legal doctrine and how it has been developed and applied. For the non-doctrinal procedure, the researcher will seek to investigate by using existing empirical data from literature, how law and legal institutions have function to affect or mould human thinking.31 Because case study has the characteristic of defining the specific area where the data collection will take place, the Niger Delta region in Nigeria will be used. Niger Delta is selected due to the numerous numbers of oil exploration and drilling businesses that take place there. More to this are the numerous cases of unrest between community members and companies about social responsibility issues. 3.3 Criteria for considering studies for the review The entire systematic literature will be performed by the use of The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines for systematic review report writing. As part of this guideline, the researcher is expected to define the criteria for considering studies for the review. For the proposed study, there are four major considerations that will be made for selecting studies to be reviewed. The first has to do with the type of study, where the researcher shall ensure that all studies were conducted as primary research case study. The reason for this criterion is that since the researcher will not be collecting primary research from the research setting, it is important to use other studies that have already been to the field. The second criteria is the types of participants, where the selection will be limited to only studies focusing on respondents from the Niger Delta Region. The last criteria will be the types of outcome measures where studies must clearly define their validity and reliability measures. 3.4 Search strategy The study’s search strategy will be performed by using a literature log. The literature log will generally set out 4 themes that the researcher would want to focus data collection on. It is expected that the themes will directly reflect the specific objectives of the study. After the themes have been identified, five major academic databases population for social and law research will be selected. The databases are proposed to include ProQuest Research library, ArticlesPlus, Literature Resource Center, LexisNexis Academic, and Mintel Reports. Once the databases have been found, keywords will be constructed from each theme and searched. The resulting articles are expected to be many but 3 articles will be selected for theme, making 12 articles in all. Skimming and scanning processes will therefore be used to limit the number of resulting articles. 3.5 Methods of review Once the 12 articles have been selected, a systematic method of review following the JBI guideline will be used. As part of the guideline, three major steps in review shall be performed. These are quality, data extraction, and data synthesis. The quality will level will emphasise on how methodological assessment was undertaken by each writer. Data extraction will also look into how the writers extracted and managed data. Finally, the data synthesis will form the main component of the systematic review where the approach to the researcher’s synthesis of data will be critiqued. For each of the three levels of review, a checklist will be prepared to guide the critiquing process. 3.6 Ethical consideration In the performance of the study, a lot of emphasis will be placed on the need to ensuring that no ethical procedures are bridged. Because the research will take the form of desk research where the researcher shall use a lot of secondary data, the major consideration to be made in terms of ethics will be on the rightful use of other people’s works. First, the researcher will ensure that plagiarism of any kind is avoided whiles collecting data or using other people’s work. This will be done by referencing any source used in the study both at the in-text and end-of-text. The literature log will be of help in ensuring that all sources are referenced because it will be easier to refer to the log to know which sources were used. Second, the researcher shall ensure that where applicable, writers whose works are used in the study will be contacted either through email, telephone or in person. 3.7 Data analysis plan The analysis of data from the 12 articles or sources will be done also by the use of the JBI guideline. The analysis of data from the sources will form a major component of the study because it will be out of their findings that the proposed study will build its own findings. The analysis of data or review of results will therefore comprise three levels which will increase description of studies, methodological quality, and presentation of results. The presentation of results will be divided according to the themes so that it will be possible to clearly identify which results fit which theme for the study. After the review of results, there will be a discussion chapter which will give opportunity to the researcher to express personal opinion on the findings based on what has been reviewed in the main literature of the study. References Adams, C. and Geoffrey F. (2008). Integrating sustainability reporting into management practices. Accounting Forum. Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 288–302. Altman, M., Edwin J., Sara R. C., Selene K. and Sijme G. (2011). Tools and Concepts figure. An analysis of the GRI Reporting Framework Assigment. Master in Strategic Leadership Towards Sustainability, Blekinge Institute of Technology. Amaeshi , K., Adi , B., Ogbechie , C. & Amao , O. (2006). Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria: western mimicry or indigenous practices? New York: Research Paper Series. Cone C. (2014). India’s Mandatory CSR Law Inspires Innovation. 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