Corporate Social Responsibility Practices and Financial Performance of Listed Firms in Nigeria: Evidence from Park's Feasible Generalized Least Square Approach

Abstract

The health of a firm in a highly viable business environment depends on its ability to achieve profit and maintain financial accuracy. Firms are subject to enormous forces exercised from other stakeholders apart from the shareholders directly involved with firm management and capital provider. Studies have shown the difficulties faced by firms that try to strike a balance between these two dimensions: economic (Return on Assets) and non-economic (social causes and maintenance of equitable balance) to improve financial performance. Moreover, the components of these dimensions are not well delineated in literature when examining the effect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on financial performance. Hence, this study examined the impact of CSR and financial performance of listed firms in Nigeria. The study adopted ex-post facto. The population consisted of 168 firms listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange as at 31st December 2018. Validated secondary data sourced through the published annual reports of 52 firms, purposively selected for those firms that disclose CSR information in their audited financial statements as a single report; for a period of 11 years (2008 to 2018), giving 572 firm-year observations. The reliability of the data premised on external auditors' certification. Findings revealed that Social Causes (SOCA) had a significant and positive effect on Return on Assets (ROA) (R² = 0.41, β = 0.116, t(570) = 2.544, p < 0.05) and Maintaining Equitable Balance (MEB) with the stakeholders exerted a significant and positive effect on ROA of listed firms in Nigeria (R² = 0.57, β = 0.693, t(570) = 63.127, p < 0.05). The study concluded that corporate social responsibility has significant positive impacts on the financial performance of firms in Nigeria. It is recommended that the practice of corporate social responsibility should be intensified by corporate firms to improve their performance.