PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show that given the dearth of literature on how firms in the African continent have embraced and practiced corporate social responsibility (CSR), this study contributes to the CSR literature by examining managers' perceptions about CSR, structural changes to enhance, its implementation, and the pattern of current CSR actions in Nigeria.Design/methodology/approachThe study used quantitative approach and collected primary data through a three‐part structured questionnaire, from insurance firms operating in Nigeria. The 67 responses received were analysed descriptively and the results presented.FindingsThe overall results indicate a strong support for social responsibility and the translation of this support into action through involvement in some community based projects. Evidence from the study also suggests that social responsibility is still largely perceived as a philanthropic gesture.Research limitations/implicationsThe study only covers insurance firms operating in Lagos state. Furthermore, only one response represents the view of a firm, hence the need to exercise caution in generalizing the results.Practical implicationsSince the results suggest the readiness of the Nigerian insurance firms to go beyond the traditional view of profit and shareholders' wealth maximization, there must be a consistency between this posture and their actions.Originality/valueThe study provides an insight into perceptions about corporate social responsibility in the insurance industry, in a developing country and in Africa, which to the best knowledge of the author, have not been done before.

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The corporate social responsibility (CSR) debate has developed tremendously over decades. However, while CSR communication has developed significantly, web-accessibility of CSR communications is under researched. The purpose of this paper is to examine how firms make their CSR communications accessible to their stakeholders on the internet. Design/methodology/approach -The authors used number of "clicks" to download CSR communication of a firm to measure its accessibility. Independent mean test showed that CSR communications by high impact sectors are more accessible on the internet than low impact sectors, but web-accessibility is not affected by country. Findings -Although CSR research has grown tremendously over the decades, the discourse has been largely restricted to disclosures in the annual reports and, lately, to the standalone sustainability reports. In addition, they have mainly examined the management's motives for disclosures, using legitimacy theory as the most influential theoretical underpinning. Only very few studies have examined CSR communication on the internet and even these studies have only researched the content of the disclosure, examining the quality and quality of disclosures. Originality/value -The originality of this paper lies in its consideration of the effect of firms' CSR communications on the recipients. While CSR communication has developed significantly, web-accessibility of CSR communications remains under researched.

PurposeThis paper aims to reflect the argument that the impetus to engage in socially responsible actions is ultimately reinforced by the perceived belief that doing so will be beneficial to the corporation in the long run.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses a narrative‐inductive approach to make important contributions to the corporate social responsibility‐organizational effectiveness literature. Data were collected through a semi‐structured interview, and analyzed using qualitative analysis strategies.FindingsThe study reports a profound perceived usefulness of ethics and social responsibility for business in the insurance industry in Nigeria. Furthermore, the study presents evidence that indicates that consciousness about the role of ethics and social responsibility in organizational effectiveness in this context is low, but, nevertheless suggests a positive posture towards the constructs. This positive posture seems to have been driven by the negative image of the industry and the need to remedy the situation. It suggests that this can be achieved through a show of genuine concern for the needs of the consumers, and the need to reinforce their trust and confidence in insurance as a loss mitigating mechanism.Practical implicationsWhile shareholders' value maximization was shown as one of the considerations for ethical and social responsible behavior compromise, findings from the study also suggest that stakeholders' value maximization would be an effective consideration for the industry to improve the present low market penetration. The paper draws out the need to amend short‐term goals for long‐term goals by sacrificing short‐term profits for long‐term profits and survival.Originality/valueAlthough the strategic importance of ethics and social responsibility has been investigated using the deductive approach in other industries, this work provides an alternative to this existing bulk of positivist investigations by using an inductive approach with subjects drawn from the insurance industry. The study also seems to the authors' knowledge, the first to investigate the strategic importance of this construct in a developing and apathetic market such as Nigeria.

Insurance like most financial services is a complex system of interfaces and exchanges, requiring prospects to rely heavily on the technical information supplied by sales persons to make crucial decisions of long term consequences. Even at this, insurance companies are sometimes compelled by court's interpretation of certain clauses, terms and condition and rulings to fulfil promises made at the inception of policies. The vulnerability of insurance sales persons and practitioners to ethical abuse has grievous implications for insurance industry worldwide and there's a need to examine the ethical values of its managers. This study explores the effects of perceived corporate ethical climate on the moral beliefs of managers in the industry, as well as managerial differences in these two measures on certain demographic variables. The results obtained are presented and discussed with managerial implications.Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Obalola, M. (2010) 'An empirical examination of moral beliefs of the Nigerian insurance managers and the moderating effects of corporate ethical values and some demographic factors', Int.

Commitment of employees to their organisations has been one of the central research themes in organisational study. Though, many predictors of organisational commitment abound in the literature, much is however not known on how ethical behaviour in the organisation affects employees' commitment. Considering the nature of insurance services, and high potentials for ethical dilemma in the industry, this study contributes to organisational commitment literature by providing further understanding on the impact of corporate ethical values on organisational commitment in Nigeria. Underpinned by cognitive dissonance theory, the study proposes a significant relationship between the two constructs. While controlling for some demographic factors, corporate ethical values was hypothesized as a significant determinant of organisational commitment. With data from 415 managers, collected through Hunt's et al (1989) Corporate Ethical Value and Hunt's et al (1985) organisational commitment scales, the results of the multivariate analysis were presented, and discussed with managerial implications.