Corporate Hypocrisy, Corporate Environmental Accountability, and Reputation: Case of Niger Delta Region

Abstract

Corporate environmental accountability refers to the company environmental commitment, whereby the company fully embraces sustainability and has a net positive impact on environment and society. All companies report having some sorts of environmental support programmes, yet, there remain activities highlighting the hypocrisy of some corporations, thereby, affecting their reputation. This study tends to look at the mediating effect of corporate environmental accountability on the relationship between corporate hypocrisy and reputation of oil companies in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Questionnaire was used to collect data from 250 respondents in Asaba, Delta State, 200 copies of questionnaire were correctly filled, returned and used for the analysis. PROCESS Macro was used to analyze the data with the aid of SPSS. The results indicate that corporate environmental accountability mediates the relationship between corporate hypocrisy and reputation. Thus, corporate environmental accountability can be used to mitigate the effect of hypocrisy on reputation. The study suggests that companies should be transparent and honest in their corporate environmental accountability initiatives as it can be used as a tactics to improve reputation with the public.