Assessment of the Impact of a Firm’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on its Profitability in Nigeria: A Case Study of Akure Firms in Ondo State

Abstract

This study critically examined the impact of a firm’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on its profitability in Nigeria. The specific objective of the study was to assess the effect of customer orientation on the performance of SMEs in South West, Nigeria; examine the effect of competitor orientation on the performance of SMEs in South West, Nigeria and investigate the effect of inter-functional coordination the on the performance of SMEs in Ondo state, Nigeria. A descriptive survey research design was adopted and the population of the study covered all the 23,289 SMEs across all the states in the South West region of Nigeria; out of which, 393 small and medium scale enterprises’ owners were selected using the Yamane model (1967). An adapted questionnaire was used and it was subjected to a validity and reliability test. Data gathered via the questionnaire was analyzed using frequency and percentage for background information of the respondents and items on the questions, Pearson correlation to show the relationship between the predictor and outcome variable and simple linear regression to reveal the effect of all the predictors on the outcome variable. The result of the analysis revealed that customer orientation has a positive and significant effect on the performance of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in South West, Nigeria to the tune of 0.302(p=0.000<0.05), Thus, it was concluded that all the predictors (customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter-functional orientation) have a positive and significant effect on the performance of SMEs in South West, Nigeria.