Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria: western mimicry ...

1TheShellvs.OgonisagaisawelldocumentedcasestudyinCSRliteraturePage4of44IntroductionThis paper seeks to contribute to the meagre literature on CSR indeveloping economies by providing a Nigerian perspective of CSR.Nigeria makes an interesting case to explore the meaning and practiceof CSR for many reasons. Nigeria is the most populous black-countryin the world and is influential both within sub Saharan Africa and in theglobal economy – not least in the proven capability of her internalevents to destabilize the global oil market. In fact, incessant politicalunrests within the country are not unconnected to the social andenvironmental concerns that lie at the heart of CSR debate 1 . Problemsof poverty in the midst of plenty, environmental negligence andbureau-political corruption implicate both the behaviour of the Nigeriangovernment and those of multinational oil companies in particular.There have been a number of studies on CSR in Nigeria, most of whichhave, mainly, focused on multinational firms and less on indigenousfirms (e.g. Ite, 2004, 2005; Frynas, 2000, 2001; Boele et al 2001;Wheeler et al., 2002).If the CSR practices of multinational firmsoperating in Nigeria reflect the national business systems of theirhome countries, as Jones (1999) and van Tulder and Kolk (2001)argue, the question therefore arises on how indigenous Nigerian firms