An Impact of Social Audits on Corporate Performance: Analyses of Nigerian Manufacturing Firms.

Abstract

This study examines the impact of corporate social responsibility on the profitability of firms in Nigeria. The main objective of this study is to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility and firms’ profitability in Nigeria. The study makes use of secondary data, sourced from ten (10) randomly selected firms’ annual report and financial summary between “1999-2008”. The study makes use of ordinary least square for the analysis of collected data. Findings from the analysis show that the sample firms invested less than ten percent of their annual profit to social responsibility. The co-efficient of determination of the result obtained gives 0.622016 (62%), this depicts that the explanatory variable account for about 62% changes or variations in selected firms performance (PAT) are caused by changes in corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Nigeria. The study concludes and recommends that laws and regulations to obligate firms to recognize and to comply with social responsibility should be enacted. Also, adequate attention should be given to social accounting in terms of social costs.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; firms’ profitability; Social Audit; Nigeria.