This thesis investigates the effects of institutional investors and board of director (BOD) characteristics on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of Public Listed Companies (PLCs) in Nigeria. This study is motivated by the lack of empirical studies in Nigeria concerning the role of different institutional investors and BOD on CSR.\ud
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More specifically, this study uses multi-method approaches: firstly, the case study method involving in-depth interviews, documentary data followed by postal survey. Secondly, the Pooled Ordinary Least Square, random effect and fixed effect estimators were used to estimate the balanced panel of 174 PLCs from 2003 to 2009. The study finds no significant relationship between different types of institutional investors and CSR. Also, while the Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) and board size show a positive relationship with CSR, the executive directors and board diversity show a negative and significant relationship with CSR.\ud
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This thesis not only contributes to the understanding of how BOD characteristics and how the role of institutional investors’ affect CSR, but it also fills the gap in the methodologies employed in the corporate governance and CSR studies in Nigeria. This is useful for an emerging market economy like Nigeria in areas of policy making and for companies to improve on their CSR practices in host communities.\ud
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In addition, the study reveals the absence of the role of institutional investors and BOD characteristics in strengthening the corporate governance mechanism in developing countries and the significance of filling the gap by supporting the formation of the ethical code of conduct and business standard for best practices. Secondly, the study reveals that CSR in developing countries are strategic in nature and linked to the corporate philosophies of companies. The implications of this study are that the interest of the managers should be aligned to the stakeholder interest; this is to ensure the long term survival of the company and to create a win-win situation between the company and community