Purpose -The international awareness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues and the socio-political context of emerging countries are increasing the pressure on businesses, including multinational corporations, to take another look at their societal role. In a context of state failure (immature institutions), paying taxes can guarantee neither the peaceful management of company operations nor the sustainable development of local communities. Moreover, multinationals have experienced that making resources and opportunities available to local communities is not enough. The Niger Delta in Nigeria is, in this regard, a textbook case that demonstrates the challenge of achieving sustainable development in the context of acute inequalities. This paper seeks to address these issues.Design/methodology/approach -Drawing on fieldwork -quantitative and qualitative surveyscarried out in Nigeria for the past seven years, the paper builds on initiatives and approaches undertaken by Total, Agip and NPDC/Shell, consistent with their understanding of their role in society.Findings -Inequalities and imbalances (income, gender, inter-regional, sector-based) ferment frustrations and nurture insecurity and violence in the Niger Delta, therefore hindering sustainable development. As far as the relationship between oil companies and communities is concerned, the authors argue that oil multinationals have to foster an approach that targets the reduction of those exceptional inequalities for which they are partly responsible, as revealed with the ''double effect'' principle.Originality/value -Whereas CSR has been so far mainly studied as a management issue, this paper brings broader views and analyzes ethical, cultural and economic dynamics that underlie the acceptability of companies in their environment, in the specific context of the Niger Delta.
The starting point of this paper is the need to promote a people‐centred corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework in a context where many human needs and rights remain unsatisfied and where businesses may have both a positive and a negative impact on the quality of life of human beings today and tomorrow and may even lead to irreversible damage. Our normative definition of CSR is consistent with the criteria established by the EU Commission in 2011. We conceive CSR as a responsibility towards human development in two complementary ways: (a) a holistic responsibility shared by companies together with other actors to safeguard humanity and (b) a direct liability of each company for its impact on stakeholders' capabilities. We apply Nussbaum's list of central capabilities and concept of thresholds to specify the nature and extent of corporate responsibilities towards employees, subcontractors, investors, customers, and humanity as a whole. In addition, we leverage fieldwork in developing and developed countries to analyse the effect of business activities on human capabilities. We demonstrate that by quantifying the impact of businesses' activities on various dimensions of stakeholders' lives, and especially on the most vulnerable ones, these businesses can be held accountable for the negative externalities they produce.
capabilities approach, corporate social responsibility, Mill, Nussbaum, relational capability, Sen, utilitarianism,
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