FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE ADOPTION OF CSR TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY IN THE NIGERIAN BANKING SECTOR
Abstract
This study appraises the factors influencing the adoption of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) towards sustainable development in the Nigerian Banking Industry by Exploring Corporate Social Responsibility using the triple bottom line attributes. The study reiterated that in relation to the banking sector, CSR is the obligation of banks to manage their social, economic and environmental activities at the local and global level. This involves the bank considering not only their profitability and growth, but also the interests of society and the environment by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on stakeholders, employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers and civil society represented by NGOs.
The thesis examines the perception of the stakeholders on CSR attribute and the banking sector, dominant CSR activities, issues targeted and potentials of CSR stimulating the sustainability of the banking sector and aims to explore and evaluate the social and ethical practices of the banks in Nigeria, through the perceptions of the Nigerian participants. By doing so, the participant perceptions of the ethical foundations of the banking system were examined, namely the participants’ perception of the possibility of banking and the nexus between development and the banking practices; through the formulation of the following objectives: Describing CSR practices in the banking sector in Nigeria in terms of knowledge and importance of CSR; CSR attributes; and Challenges; determining the relationship between the below factors and CSR in achieving sustainable development; government policy; Top management; customer Interest, determining which of the factors has greater impacts on banks to adopt CSR as a means of sustainable development; determining how CSR mediates the relationship between the factors that influences it and Sustainable Development in respect of Government policy; top management and customer interest; discovering the relationship between CSR and Sustainable development in the banking sector in Nigeria; developing a proposed model relevant to the banking sector that may lead to the effective adoption of CSR leading to sustainable development in Nigeria and determining whether the banks in Nigeria with different demographic characteristics differ in their factors which influences CSR towards sustainable development.
The study was faced with some limitations such as slow response to questionnaires, several terminations of appointments for interview due to the respondent’s schedule, financial constraint, limited recent resource material and some constraints that the researcher was able to deal with in the midst of all this limitation, the study was still a success.
The study found that Banks in Nigeria to a large extent is influenced by government policy, customer interest and the bank management on CSR towards sustainable development and concludes that firms engage in CSR mainly for profit maximization, which means in essence that the company assumes to be socially responsible just because they anticipate a benefit from these actions.
