In reality, most state actors—especially those in the developing world—are usually incapable of effectively governing all facets of their territory. This has necessitated the intervention of non-state actors (in this instance, corporations), who through their social responsibility engagements act as functional equivalents to state-driven government. Using empirical data, this article evaluates the “governance” interventions of corporations in the oil industry in Nigeria’s Delta region. While arguing that the area qualifies as an area of limited statehood, the article asserts that corporate social responsibility practices that are based on Western (neoliberal) approaches cannot contribute effectively to the sustainable development of host-communities. In this context, the article contends that since the social responsibility engagements of corporations in the Niger Delta (as in most developing countries) are influenced by a pro-West philosophy, the end result is a business responsibility engagement which is ineffective as a development strategy.
AaronK. K. (2010). Two theses on corporate social responsibility performance in the Niger Delta. In AaronK. K.DawariG. (Eds.), Placebo as medicine: The poverty of development intervention and conflict resolution strategies in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria (pp. 158-177). Port Harcourt, Nigeria: Kemuela Books.
2.
AaronK. K.PatrickJ. M. (2013). Corporate social responsibility patterns and conflicts in Nigeria’s oil-rich region. International Area Studies Review, 16, 341-356.
3.
AguileraR. V.RuppD.WilliamsC. A.GanapathiJ. (2007). Putting the “S” back in corporate social responsibility: A multi-level theory of social change in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 32, 836-863.
4.
AkeC. (1985). The future of the state in Africa. International Political Science Review, 6, 105-114.
5.
AminS. (1985). Preface: The state and the question of development. In Nyong’oP. A. (Ed.), Popular struggles for democracy in Africa (pp. 3-5). London, England: Zed Press.
AndrewsO. T. (2015). The Nigerian State, oil multinationals and the environment: A case study of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). Journal of Public Administration and Policy Research, 7(2), 1-24.
9.
AnyimF. C.et al. (2012). Conflict and environmental challenges facing the oil companies in Nigeria, Niger-Delta region. International Journal of Business and Management Tomorrow, 2, 2-8.
10.
AziziS.JamaliD. (2016). CSR in Afghanistan: A global CSR agenda in areas of limited statehood. South Asian Journal of Global Business Research, 5, 165-189.
11.
BenzA. (2004). Governance—Regieren in komplexen Regelsystemen [Governance- Governing in Complex Control Systems]. Wiesbaden, Germany: VS Verlag f.Sozialwiss.
12.
BoltanskL.ChiapelloE. (2007). The new spirit of capitalism. New York, NY: Verso Books.
13.
BörzelT. A.RisseT. (2010). Governance without a state: Can it work?Regulation & Governance, 4, 113-134.
14.
BörzelT. A.HönkeJ.ThauerC. R. (2012). Does it really take the state?Business and Politics, 14(3), 1-34.
15.
BrammerS.JacksonG.MattenD. (2012). Corporate social responsibility and institutional theory: New perspectives on private governance. Socio-Economic Review, 10, 3-28.
16.
ChanM. C.WatsonJ.WoodliffD. (2014). Corporate governance quality and CSR disclosures. Journal of Business Ethics, 125, 59-73.
ChojnackiS.MenzelA. (2015). State failure and state transformation. In HuberE.LangeM.LeibfriedS.LevyJ.NullmeierF.John StephensJ. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of transformations of the State (pp.745-761). London, England: Oxford University Press.
19.
CraneA.MattenD.SpenceL. J. (2013). Corporate social responsibility in a global context. In CraneA.MattenD.SpenceL. J. (Eds.), Corporate social responsibility: Readings and cases in a global context (pp. 3-26). London, England: Routledge.
20.
DeitelhoffN.WolfK. D. (Eds.). (2010). Corporate security responsibility? Corporate governance contributions to peace and security in zones of conflict. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
21.
DesJardinsJ. (2006). An introduction to business ethics. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
22.
DikeK. O. (1956). Trade and politics in the Niger Delta 1830-1885: An introduction to the economic and political history of Nigeria. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
DoaneD. (2005). Beyond corporate social responsibility: Minnows, mammoths and markets. Futures, 37, 215-229.
25.
DuS.VieiraE. T. (2012). Striving for legitimacy through corporate social responsibility: Insights from oil companies. Journal of Business Ethics, 110, 413-427.
26.
DuruigboE.WozniakO.LeightonM. (2001). Oil development in Nigeria: A critical investigation of Chevron corporation’s performance in the Niger River Delta. San Francisco, CA: Natural Heritage Institute.
27.
EilbiritH.ParketR. I. (1973). The practices of business: The current state of corporate social responsibility. Business Horizons, 16, 5-14.
28.
EjioguA. R. (2013). Gas flaring in Nigeria: costs and policy. Energy & Environment, 24 (6), 983-998.
29.
EmmanuelA. O.OlayiwolaJ. J.BabatundeA. W. (2009). Poverty, oil exploration and the Niger Delta crisis: The response of the youth. African Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 3, 221-225.
30.
EnehO.E. (2011). Crippling poverty amidst corporate social actions: a critique of peripheral corporate community involvement in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Asian Journal of Rural Development, 1 (1), 1-20.
FeilM. (2012). Global governance and corporate social responsibility in conflict zones. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
35.
FlohrA.RiethL.SchwindenhammerS.WolfK. D. (2010). The role of business in global governance: Corporations as norm-entrepreneurs. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
36.
FrynasG. J. (2000). Oil in Nigeria: Conflict and litigation between oil companies and village. Hamburg, Germany: LIT Publishers.
37.
FukuyamaF. (2005). State building: Governance and world order in the twenty-first century. London, England: Profile Books.
38.
GenschelP.ZanglB. (2008). Metamorphoses of the state: From the reign monopoly to rule manager. Leviathan, 36, 430-454.
39.
GeorgeG.Howard-GrenvilleJ.JoshiA.TihanyiL. (2016). Understanding and tackling societal grand challenges through management research. Academy of Management Journal, 59, 1880-1895.
40.
GisselquistR. M. (2014). Introduction: Aid and institution-building in fragile states: What do we know? What can comparative analysis add?The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 656, 6-21.
41.
GjolbergM. (2011). Explaining regulatory preferences: CSR, soft law, or hard law? Insights from a survey of Nordic pioneers in CSR. Business and Politics, 13(2), 1-7.
42.
GondJ. P.KangN.MoonJ. (2011). The government of self-regulation: On the comparative dynamics of corporate social responsibility. Economy and Society, 40, 640-671.
43.
GramsciA. (1971). Selections from the prison notebooks. London, England: Lawrence and Wishart.
44.
HanekomD.LuizJ. M. (2017, August). The impact of multinational enterprises on public governance institutions in areas of limited statehood (Working paper no. 669). Johannesburg, South Africa: Economic Research South Africa.
45.
HauflerV. (2001). A public role for the private sector – industry self-regulation in a global economy. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
46.
HauflerV. (2010). Corporations in zones of conflict: Issues, actors, and institutions. In AvantD.FinnemoreM.SellS. K. (Eds.), Who governs the globe? (pp. 102-130). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
HönkeJ.ThauerC. (2014). Multinational corporations and service provision in Sub-Saharan Africa: Legitimacy and institutionalization matter. Governance, 27, 697-716.
IbeanuO. (1999). Ogoni-oil, resource flow and conflict. In GranfeltT. (Ed.), Managing the globalised environment (pp. 21-26). London, England: Intermediate Technologies Publications.
51.
IbeanuO. (2000). Oiling the friction: Environmental conflict management in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Environmental Change & Security Project Report, 6, 1-20.
52.
IdemudiaU. (2008). Conceptualising the CSR and development debate: Bridging existing analytical gap. Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 29, 91-110.
53.
IdemudiaU. (2009). Oil extraction and poverty reduction in the Niger Delta: A critical examination of partnership initiatives. Journal of Business Ethics, 90(Suppl. 1), 91-116.
54.
IdemudiaU. (2014). Oil companies and sustainable community development in the Niger Delta, Nigeria: The issue of reciprocal responsibility and its implications for corporate citizenship theory and practice. Sustainable Development, 22, 177-187.
55.
IdemudiaU.IteU. E. (2006). Corporate–community relations in Nigeria’s oil industry: Challenges and imperatives. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 13, 194-206.
56.
IkomeF. N. (2005). Conflict in the Niger Delta: Issues and dynamic. Global Insight, 44(5), 1-7.
57.
ImomotimiE. K.CollinsA. E. (2014). Corporate social responsibility and community development in the Niger Delta. Africology, 1, 1-12.
58.
IrelandP.PillayR. G. (2009). Corporate social responsibility in a neoliberal age. In YttingP.MarquesJ. (Eds.), Corporate social responsibility and regulatory governance (pp. 23-83). Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
59.
IteA. E.IbokU. J. (2013). Gas flaring and venting associated with petroleum exploration and production in the Nigeria’s Niger Delta. American Journal of Environmental Protection, 1, 70-77.
60.
IteU. E. (2004). Multinationals and corporate social responsibility in developing countries: A case study of Nigeria. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 11(1), 1-11.
61.
IteU. E. (2007). Changing times and strategies: Shell’s contribution to sustainable community development in the Niger Delta, Nigeria. Sustainable Development, 15(1), 1-12.
62.
KewD. (2013). Seeking peace in the Niger Delta: Oil, natural gas, and other vital resources. New England Journal of Public Policy, 24 (1), 1-18.
63.
KindermanD. (2012). Free us up so we can be responsible! The co-evolution of corporate social responsibility and neo-liberalism in the UK, 1977-2010. Socio-Economic Review, 10, 29-57.
64.
KolkA.LenfantF. (2015). Partnerships for peace and development in fragile states: Identifying missing links. Academy of Management Perspectives, 29, 422-437.
65.
KrasnerS. D. (1999). Sovereignty: Organized hypocrisy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
66.
LeibfriedS.ZürnM. (Eds.). (2005). Transformations of the state?Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
67.
LevittT. (1958). The danger of social responsibility. Harvard Business Review, 36, 41-50.
68.
Lumumba-KasongoT. (2005). The problematic of liberal democracy and democratic process: Lesson for deconstructing and building African democracies. In Lumumba-KasongoT. (Ed.), Liberal democracy and its critics, political dysfunction and the struggle for social progress (Preface, pp. 1-3). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
69.
MayntzR. (2010). Governance in the modern state. In BenzA.DoseN. (Eds.), Governance—Rule in complex control systems: An introduction (2nd ed., pp. 37-48). Wiesbaden, Germany: VS Verlag.
70.
MayntzR.ScharpfF. W. (1995). Control and self-organization in government-related sectors. In MayntzR.ScharpfF. W. (Eds.), Social self-regulation and governance (pp. 9-38). Frankfurt, Germany: Frankfurt am Main.
71.
MoonJ. (2005). An explicit model of business-society relations. In HabischA.JonkerJ.WegnerM.SchmidpeterR. (Eds.), Corporate responsibility across Europe (pp. 1-55). Berlin, Germany: Springer.
72.
MurphyM.PerrotF.Rivera-SantosM. (2012). New perspectives on learning and innovation in cross-sector collaborations. Journal of Business Research, 65, 1700-1709.
73.
NewellP.FrynasJ. G. (2007). Beyond CSR: Business, poverty and social justice: An introduction. Third World Quarterly, 28, 668-670.
74.
NorthD. C. (1990). Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
75.
NwokeU. (2017). Corporations and development: The barriers to effective corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a neoliberal age. International Journal of Law and Management, 59, 122-146.
76.
NzeadibeT. C.AjaeroC. K.NwokeM. B. (2015). Rethinking Corporate community engagement in the petro-economy of the Niger Delta. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 36, 376-393.
77.
OdeleyeI. (2005). Corporate social responsibility and the in-house counsel. In MulleratR.BrennanD. (Eds.), Corporate social responsibility: The corporate governance of the 21stcentury (pp. 425-450). The Hague, The Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.
78.
OgulaD. (2012). Corporate social responsibility: Case study of community expectations and the administrative systems, Niger Delta. The Qualitative Report, 17(73), 1-27.
79.
OjoG. U. (2012). Community perception and oil companies’ corporate social responsibility initiative in the Niger Delta. Studies in Sociology of Science, 3, 13-21.
80.
OkontaI.DouglassO. (2003). Where vultures feast; Shell, human rights and oil. London, England: Verso Books.
OrjiK. E. (2012). National security and sustainable development in Nigeria: Challenges from the Niger Delta. African Research Review, 6, 199-211.
83.
RieperS. (2013). Corporate social responsibility in zones of conflict (Working paper no. 18/2013). Berlin, Germany: Center for International Political Economy.
84.
RisseT. (Ed.). (2011). Governance without a state? Policies and politics in areas of limited statehood. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
85.
RisseT. (2015). Limited statehood: A critical perspective. In HuberL. S.LangeE.LevyM.StephensJ. D. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of transformations of the state (pp. 1-20). London, England: Oxford University Press.
86.
RisseT.StollenwerkE. (2018). Legitimacy in areas of limited statehood. Annual Review of Political Science, 21, 403-418.
87.
Rivera-SantosM.RufínC. (2010). Global village vs. small town: Understanding networks at the base of the pyramid. International Business Review, 19, 126-139.
88.
Rivera-SantosM.RufínC.KolkA. (2012). Bridging the institutional divide: Partnerships in subsistence markets. Journal of Business Research, 65, 1721-1727.
89.
RotbergR. I. (2004). The failure and collapse of nation states: Breakdown, prevention, and repair. In RotbergR. I. (Ed.), When states fail: Causes and consequences (pp. 1-49). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
90.
ScharpfF. W. (1991). The capacity of the state at the end of the twentieth century. Political Quarterly, 32, 621-634.
91.
ShamirR. (2004). De-radicalization of corporate social responsibility. Critical Sociology, 30, 669-689.
SimonG. J.PowersW. C.GunnemannP. J. (1972). The responsibilities of corporations and their owners. In BeauchampT. L.BowieN.E. (Eds.), Ethical theory and business (pp. 61-65). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
94.
SolomonR. C.MartinC. (2004). Above the bottom line: An introduction to business ethics (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
95.
StollenwerkE. (2017). Measuring statehood on the sub-national level in Nigeria. In HeucherA.Linke-BehrensL.SchettlerL. (Eds.), Measuring statehood on a sub-national level (pp. 9-15). Berlin, Germany: DGF Collaborative Research Center.
96.
StreeckW. (2009). Reforming capitalism: Institutional change in the German political economy. London, England: Oxford University Press.
97.
StreeckW. (2011). Taking capitalism seriously: Towards an institutionalist approach to contemporary political economy. Socio-Economic Review, 9, 137-167.
98.
ThomsenS. (2006). Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
99.
TuodoloF. (2009). Corporate social responsibility: Between civil society and the oil industry in the developing world. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 8, 530-541.
100.
UkpongsonM.OnuD. (2004). Development efforts of oil companies as perceived by rural households in selected oil producing communities of Rivers State, Nigeria. Journal of Agriculture and Social Research, 4, 47-61.
UttingP. (2005). Corporate responsibility and the movement of business. Development in Practice, 15, 374-376.
103.
WagnerT.LutzR. J.WeitzB. A. (2009). Corporate hypocrisy: Overcoming the threat of inconsistent corporate social responsibility perceptions. Journal of Marketing, 73, 77-91.
104.
WolfK. D. (2010). Chartered companies: Linking private security governance in early and post modernity. In DeitelhoffN.WolfK. D. (Eds.), Corporate security responsibility? Corporate governance contributions to peace and security in zones of conflict (pp. 154-176). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
ZürnM. (2002). Societal denationalization and positive governance. In OugaardM.HiggottR. A. (Eds.), Towards a global polity (pp. 78-104). London, England: Routledge.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
