Corporate Social Responsibility and financial performance: A comparative study in the Sub-Saharan Africa banking sector

Abstract

There is a growing interest in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), both in the professional and academic fields. Building on the Stakeholder theory, this study examines the impact of voluntary CSR disclosure on Financial Performance (FP) in the Sub-Saharan banking sector by comparing the top-ranked banks in Mozambique and the Republic of South Africa. This study applied content analysis to assess the Corporate Social Responsibility dimensions and the general measure of FP such as Return on Asset (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE), which are published in the annual reports in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Based on a panel data covering the period of 2012–2016, this study regresses FP on CSR disclosure and found a significant and positive relationship between FP and CSR disclosure, suggesting that CSR behavior is helpful to improve the performance of banks. The findings indicate that the Republic of South Africa banks are slightly over performing Mozambican banks, and the Republic of South Africa banks are disclosing more information regarding CSR than Mozambican banks. Also, the influence of the positive CSR disclosure index is much stronger than that of the negative CSR disclosure index on improving FP. In practical terms, it is believed that the voluntary report on CSR commitment could help the banking sector to improve its FP. The evidence from the study can help regulators and investors to understand the banks' business practices in these two countries.