The Nexus between Corporate Social Responsibility and Political Stability: A Moderated Regression Analysis in Rivers State, Nigeria

Numerous multinational companies, such as the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in Rivers State, Nigeria, invest heavily in CSR programmes to support their host communities. Nonetheless challenges such as political instability, communal strife, and mistrust between companies and communities still in place. This may imply that a number of CSR initiatives are not addressing the true needs of the people. The research investigates the impact of four CSR domains, namely, corporate philanthropy, environmental sustainability practices, ethical operations, and community participation, on community welfare and organizational success. It further investigated the effect of political instability on these relationships. The research was grounded in the Stakeholder Theory (Freeman, 1984) and adopted a descriptive survey design. Questionnaires were administered to 250 respondents who comprised oil and gas company workers, members of host communities, and local government officials in Rivers State. The obtained data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and moderated multiple regression analysis through SPSS Version 27. The results showed a positive and significant influence of all four CSR activities on community impact and organizational performance with coefficients ranging from β = .22 to β = .32 (p ≤ .05). Ethical practices (β = .32) had the largest effect followed by community participation (β = .27). Furthermore, the findings demonstrated that political instability significantly weakened the positive relations between CSR initiatives and community and corporate results (ΔR² = .048; p < .05). The effect was strongest for ethical practices and community engagement. The study concludes that CSR Programmes can improve community welfare and organizational performance may be more successful in stable political environments without conflict. The study further urges multinational corporations to give more attention to community participation in decision making, to strengthen ethical accountability, to adequately monitor environmental commitments, and to create adaptable CSR programmes that will enable them to respond to periods of political instability in Rivers State and perhaps other similar areas.