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The Influence of Corporate Social Responsibility of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises on the Attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 8 in Rivers State

Zems, Eunice Chidiebere, Nwineh, Letombari Princess PhD

Abstract

The study examined the influence of corporate social responsibility of small and medium scale enterprises on the attainment of sustainable development goal 8 in Rivers State, Nigeria. The study was guided by five objectives, five research questions and five null hypotheses. The study adopted a correlational survey research design. The target population for this study consists of 4,550 business owners/managers of registered Small and Medium Scale Enterprises operating within Port Harcourt, Obio/Akpor and Ikwerre Local Government Areas of Rivers State. Purposive sampling technique was used in selecting 368 small business owners (Obio-Akpor LGA=121; Ikwerre LGA=97; Port Harcourt LGA=150). The instrument for data collection was a self- structured questionnaire which was face and content validated by two specialists in Department of Business Education and one specialist in Measurement and Evaluation, Rivers State University. A reliability coefficient of 0.80 was obtained through the Pearson Product Moment Correlation method. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the research questions while Z-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that economic, legal, ethical, philanthropic and environmental responsibilities of small and medium scale enterprises influences their attainment of sustainable development goal 8 in Rivers State. It also revealed that there was no significant difference in the mean responses of small and medium scale business owners across the three local government areas of the state on the influence of corporate social responsibility of small and medium scale enterprises on the attainment of sustainable development goal 8 in Rivers State. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that small and medium scale business owners should adopt cost-effective strategies like sustainability practices and upskilling of workers inorder to foster decent work and other sustainable development goals in Rivers State.

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