Doing Good or Doing Well?: The Relationship Between Corporate Social Performance and Corporate Financial Performance in Tullow Oil Ghana

Abstract

There has been numerous academic researches on whether Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is financially beneficial to firms, with mixed feelings. The objective of this study was to identify how strong the correlation between CSR and profit is, and how companies behave in the periods they have losses, whether they continue to do CSR activities, reduce the activities, or they give them up. Thus, CSR is attributed to the concept of “doing good” and profit to the expression of “doing well” from which a “positive business” can be built. The research design was largely qualitative. Data was gathered from two sources, in-depth interviews from a sample of five participants from Tullow Oil Gh and data from Tullow Oil Gh’s annual sustainability report as the primary and secondary data sources respectively. Analyzed data revealed that there is a strong relationship between a company’s CSR activities and its profit. Results of the data also showed that Tullow Oil Gh embarks on social responsibilities not only during times of profitability but also during times of low profitability. However, activities may be reduced to match the company’s financial strength.