IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/jaeepp/jaee-02-2019-0038.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate environmental accountability in Nigeria: an example of regulatory failure and regulatory capture

Author

Listed:
  • Abdurafiu Olaiya Noah
  • Pawan Adhikari
  • Babafemi O. Ogundele
  • Hassan Yazdifar

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to investigate how state regulations become ineffective in holding corporations accountable for environmental degradation in an emerging economy context, with a specific focus on oil and gas and cement industry in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach - The study draws on capture theory to bring out the factors that have rendered redundant the state intervention to make corporations accountable for their environmental activities. The research setting is the oil and gas and cement industry in Nigeria. Data for the study are derived from both documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews and analysed using a thematic technique. Findings - The findings of the paper demonstrate a regulatory failure to hold corporations to account for their environmental activities. A lack of political will, outdated regulations and the manipulation of the regulators, all have played a part in preventing corporations from being accountable for their activities. In addition, the widespread elite corruption in the country has provided corporations with leeway to manipulate their environmental accountability practices. The study emphasises the need for continuous review of the regulations and efforts to reduce corruption in order to promote corporations' environmental accountability in Nigeria. Research limitations/implications - The research is limited to Nigeria, oil and gas and cement industries. The theoretical lens can be used to address problem of capture of the regulations and institution in the country. Practical implications - The practical implication is that it would enhance environmental regulations in Nigeria and emerging economies. It will also provide support from researchers emerging markets on the adoption of capture theory in future research. Social implications - It will promote corporate best environmental practices in the country. It will reduce the issues surrounding environmental accountability practices and create awareness on environmental issues among the populace. It will create the impression that corporations will be held accountable for their environmental activities in the country and the need to have improved environmental regulations in the country. Originality/value - The study adds to the debate on corporate environmental accountability practices engendering insights from the Nigerian oil and gas and cement industry. The paper demonstrates how companies in emerging economies can capture state regulations and how rendering environmental accountability becomes more of rhetoric than a reality with little impacts on the welfare of people and society.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdurafiu Olaiya Noah & Pawan Adhikari & Babafemi O. Ogundele & Hassan Yazdifar, 2020. "Corporate environmental accountability in Nigeria: an example of regulatory failure and regulatory capture," Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(1), pages 70-93, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:eme:jaeepp:jaee-02-2019-0038
    DOI: 10.1108/JAEE-02-2019-0038
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JAEE-02-2019-0038/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JAEE-02-2019-0038/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/JAEE-02-2019-0038?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Noah, Abdurafiu Olaiya & Adhikari, Pawan & Liew, Pik Kun, 2024. "Environmental and social accountability in emerging economies: strategic pressures from and responses to vulnerable local communities," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 123831, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:jaeepp:jaee-02-2019-0038. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.