The Role of Accountability in Enhancing Environmental Sustainability: Evidence from Nigeria

The stakeholder perspectives on corporate social responsibility (CSR) approach that could boost firm’s environmental performance, particularly in developing countries, is scarce in literature. In addressing this gap, this research examines the perceptions of stakeholders on accountability perspectives on CSR (APCSR) contribution to environmental sustainability drawing evidence from three groups of environmental stakeholders in oil and gas (O&G) industry in Nigeria. A holistic approach was adopted by employing an extensive theoretical framework, which integrates Stakeholder, Social Contract, Accountability, and Reasoned Action theories. A programme of quantitative enquiry was employed in conducting the investigation and a total of 418 respondents from the three groups of participants included in the survey. Using multi-variate analytical technique, the thesis investigates the mediating role of accountability in the nexus of environmental sustainability factors. In evaluating the multi-variables understudy, the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used along with structural equation modelling and multi-group invariance analysis. The findings suggest that stakeholders differ significantly on the role of accountability in enhancing CSR contribution to environmental sustainability. Whereas the external stakeholders perceive that APCSR has high tendency to boost corporate commitment to environmental sustainability, firms’ propensity to align CSR initiatives with real/potential pollution impacts, and corporate transparency on environmental impacts information, the internal stakeholders’ data only support transparency. The thesis contributes to environmental sustainability and CSR literature by offering a framework of CSR contribution to sustainability with a Four-Step Environmental Sustainability (FSES) model that positions accountability as a mediating factor that could boost corporate responsiveness. The key theoretical implication is that where a company breaks its social contract obligations of pollution prevention and environmental protection, the community stakeholders will perceive the environmental risk and threaten to withdraw the license to operate and demand for a strict system of environmental accountability. Depending on the robustness of the accountability system, the company will respond in by environmental performance that is compliant with stakeholder expectations of responsible and sustainable business operations. The policy implication is that oil MNCs could ease corporate-community tension by considering the perspectives of key constituents of stakeholders in their social/environmental responsibility programmes.