Corporate social responsibility practices in the Nigerian oil sector: The case of Royal Dutch Shell.

The thesis contributes to the perspective on the role of stakeholder engagement in negotiating corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and practices in developing country context. It critically examines the role of societal pressures as drivers of Shell's CSR agenda, and explores the forms of relationships existing between Shell and its stakeholders in Nigeria, as the company implements its CSR programme, both in the light of its strategic business objectives and of its social responsibilities and environmental liabilities. Furthermore, it examines the role of government in the oil MNCs' CSR agenda, and explores the conditions under which the government, in its dual role as business partner and as state authority, promotes CSR policies and practices in Nigeria. Shell's CSR policies and practices in Nigeria were examined under the theoretical lenses of the resource-based view perspective extended to notions of legitimacy and the licence to operate. Additionally, the stakeholder engagement perspective was applied as the theoretical framework for examining Shell's stakeholder engagement, and the role of the company's stakeholders in negotiating its current CSR policies and practices in Nigeria. Data collection was undertaken during field research in Nigeria. The evidence presented is drawn from individual interviews with corporate executives at Shell Nigeria, Shell International, several stakeholders in the Nigerian oil sector, and from an online survey conducted in 2005 on Shell Nigeria's stakeholders. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used throughout the analysis presented in the thesis. The research findings suggest that the relationship between the firm's pursuit of the social licence to operate through CSR initiatives and stakeholder engagement is more complex than assumed. It adds to the understanding of the dynamics of a MNC's stakeholder engagement in the local context. It highlights the various interdependencies that develop between stakeholder groups and the company at the institutional level as well as within the context of the organisation, as the corporation develops and implements its CSR agenda. As such, the research invites an examination not just of the differences and barriers existing between the firm and its stakeholders, home and host country practices, but also of the ways in which they are embedded in each other, and how this affects their collaboration

Unintentional social consequences of disorganised marketing of corporate social responsibility: figurational insights into the oil and gas sector in Africa.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a concept that is widely associated with large transnational corporations (TNCs) and increasingly small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The concept is contentious with wide ranging debates about intent and impact, not least from critics who perceive CSR to ostensibly be a marketing tool. Before examining some of the current flaws within CSR, it is important to establish how the concept is being applied

Counting the Environment: The Environmental Implications of International Accounting Standards

Although rarely studied, international accounting standards shape what information regarding a firm's environmental performance is communicated to international financial markets. This article builds on scholarship describing the influence of international accounting standards on private financial markets to show that nominally technical choices regarding how to recognize and measure firms' environmental impacts hold the potential to reduce these impacts. Obscure accounting debates within the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) mask important political choices about what a firm must disclose to investors about its environmental liabilities and risks. IASB decisions about how these appear on corporate balance sheets change the link between a firm's environmental performance and its economic value and, thereby, contribute to steering private financial markets toward rewarding sustainable behavior within the global economy. This analysis demonstrates the authority of the IASB as an overlooked source of global environmental governance. (c)© 2011 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.