Stakeholder pressure and social sustainability of quoted oil and gas companies in Rivers State, Nigeria

The growing expectations for responsible corporate behaviour have heightened the expectations of stakeholders on the social sustainability performance of oil and gas companies especially in environmental sensitive areas like Rivers State, Nigeria. While some regulatory changes and stakeholder activism have occurred, there remains a concern on how much stakeholder pressure can help to shape the social sustainability practices of quoted oil and gas companies. This study therefore, investigated the relationship between stakeholder pressure and social sustainability of quoted oil and gas companies in Rivers State, Nigeria. In particular, it explored how the social sustainability is affected by regulatory pressure, social community pressure and market pressure. Stakeholder Theory, Institutional Theory and Legitimacy Theory were underpinning the study. The research design that was used was a cross-sectional survey research design with the positivist research philosophy. The population of this study was 265 managerial and supervisory staff of eight quoted oil and gas companies and the sample size of 155 respondents was obtained using Krejcie and Morgan sampling table and two sampling techniques which are proportionate stratified sampling and simple random sampling. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data. Descriptive statistics and Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient at 5% level of significance was used to analyse the data obtained. Results indicated that there was a positive and significant relationship between regulatory pressure and social sustainability (ρ = 0.237, p = 0.011), a positive and significant relationship between social community pressure and social sustainability (ρ = 0.493, p = 0.000), and the highest positive and significant relationship between market pressure and social sustainability (ρ = 0.546, p = 0.000). The results of the study indicated that there is a significant influence of stakeholder pressure on social sustainability of the quoted oil and gas companies. It stated the need for enhanced regulatory compliance, the need for a culture of community involvement, and the need for Sustainability in corporate governance and strategic decisions. The study adds knowledge by offering empirical results about the differential impact of regulatory, community, and market pressures on social sustainability of the quoted oil and gas industry in Nigeria.