Premium
Determinants of Nigerian managers’ environmental attitude: Africa's Ubuntu ethics versus global capitalism
Author(s) -
Okereke Chukwumerije,
Vincent Olusegun,
Mordi Chima
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
thunderbird international business review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.553
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1520-6874
pISSN - 1096-4762
DOI - 10.1002/tie.21974
Subject(s) - corporate social responsibility , multinational corporation , business ethics , capitalism , underpinning , globalization , mainstream , sustainability , dominance (genetics) , social responsibility , emerging markets , enforcement , developing country , sociology , politics , political economy , economics , environmental ethics , political science , economic growth , public relations , market economy , law , ecology , biochemistry , chemistry , civil engineering , philosophy , macroeconomics , gene , biology , engineering
We investigate the impact of economic, institutional, and ethical pressures on African managers' corporate social and environmental attitude based on a survey involving 377 Nigerian executives in the extractive industry. We find that environmental orientation and behavior are mostly induced by instrumental economic motives, while ethical considerations exert a weak impact. This finding is significant because it contradicts mainstream corporate social responsibility (CSR) literature in Africa, which suggests the dominance of the culturally based, altruistic African Ubuntu philosophy. Based on this research finding, we suggest that economic globalization has spurned a transnational capitalist cadre of managers whose values are shaped far more by global capitalist instincts than any putative cultural philosophy. The findings also undercut the fundamental logic underpinning the numerous global initiatives to promote environmental responsibility by multinational corporations in developing countries, which assumes that managers will pursue environmental sustainability voluntarily in the absence of robust regulations and strict enforcement.