Heterogeneity in CSR Spending Across Indian Companies: Results from Regression Clustering on a Large Panel-Data Model with Fixed Effects

Abstract

CSR activities in India have a long history. However there have been numerous criticisms rose against the way in which the CSR activities are carried out by many of the Indian companies. Several studies found that more than half of the Indian firms failed to meet their mandatory requirements on CSR spending and report unspent funds in their financial statements. These issues show’s that, there is a requirement to evaluate the behavior pattern of the firms’ CSR spending activities. In this article, we try to describe the heterogeneity in the CSR related spending activities of the Indian companies. We follow the panel regression clustering approach developed by Sarafidis and Weber (2015). In this approach individual companies are grouped into a number of clusters and within each cluster, the slope parameters are assumed to be similar in nature. The difference in slopes across clusters is due to the standard error-components structure. As the clusters are heterogeneous, they do not share common parameters.