EFFECT OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ON ACCOUNTING CONSERVATISM IN NIGERIAN BANKING INDUSTRY

CHAPTER ONE
 
INTRODUCTION
1.1   Background to the Study
 
Accounting conservatism or the principle of caution, is one of the influential constraints on accounting information because it is required to recognize the lowest level of assets and revenues as well as higher values for expenses and losses, that is non-profit expectation, but all losses (Basu, 2004; Saad & Hanan, 2015). Despite the criticisms leveled against accounting conservatism as it connotes pessimism that relates to the distortion of accounting information and make it non-correct interpretable, and thus its impact of its suitability, reliability and comparability. However, this did not debar conservatism to be considered as one of the most important accounting concepts that plays a vital role in accounting practices and is of great interest to accountants and auditors.
 
The issue of corporate social responsibility in Nigerian banking industry has become a matter of concern since the disclosure of expenditure incurred by banks is usually published at the front page of their annual financial statements (Omodero & Ogbonnaya, 2017). Corporate social responsibility have received so much attention that researchers are interested to know its effects on corporate performance, financial performance, operational performance, managerial efficiency and accounting conservatism. Over years, the proper disclosure of social costs incurred by Nigerians banks is impressive because stakeholders and other end-users of accounting information are need of it, in order to make key decisions. This implies that Nigerian banks have always been disclosing their social expenditure to the general public. There is a need for the banking sector to improve on what they already doing since their existence is not only for their shareholders but for all stakeholders. There is no universally acceptable definition of corporate social responsibility in literature. However, scholars and authors have proposed different definitions which align within the contextual framework of corporate social responsibility within their local communities in particular and their country in general.