Corporate Financial Performance Relationship Research Articles

Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: Does country sustainability matter?

AbstractDrawing on stakeholder and institutional theoretical frameworks, this study aims to examine how corporate social performance (CSP) impacts corporate financial performance (CFP) and the moderating role of country sustainability and its environmental (ENV), social (SOC) and governance (GOV) dimensions. Using a broad international sample with firms from 47 countries―and through multilevel and panel data analysis―results show a positive and significant influence of CSP on CFP, while country sustainability negatively moderates the CSP–CFP relationship. This is consistent with the idea that in countries with a high level of sustainability, firms have greater difficulty obtaining competitive advantages through actions related to corporate social responsibility. Results also indicate that country sustainability has a direct and positive impact on CFP (Tobin's‐Q), regardless of CSP. Additionally, applying country sustainability in a disaggregated manner, we find that social and governance dimensions influence the CSP–CFP relationship, while the environmental dimension does not. Evidence thus confirms that the effect of CSP on CFP varies depending on the institutional context in which the firm is located.

The Role of Stakeholder Heterogeneity in the Corporate Social Responsibility – Corporate Financial Performance Relationship

Empirical evidence on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) remains contentious in terms of both its direction and causality. The presented study explores the intervening roles of stakeholder heterogeneity and the time dimension in the CSR–CFP relationship. We posit that there is a positive relationship between CSR activities towards market stakeholders (employees, customers, competitors) and future CFP and a negative relationship between CSR activities towards non-market stakeholders (NGOs, society, natural environment) and future CFP. A conceptual model is analysed using a sample of 115 Croatian companies. Countering expectations, a positive relationship is observed for all stakeholder groups considered (market and non-market), showing that CSR is a coherent construct regardless of the stakeholder group being studied. The key managerial implication is that socially responsible action is also in a company's economic interest.

Enhance or inhibit? Unveiling the influence of chairman's hometown attachment on the corporate philanthropy-Corporate financial performance relationship.

Although there have been numerous studies on the relationship between corporate philanthropy and corporate financial performance (CFP), theoretical analysis focusing on the legitimacy-based mechanism and the moderating role of key executives' psychological characteristics is scarce. Hometown attachment is a special form of place attachment in environmental psychology, which reflects people's psychological attachment to their hometown and the state of maintaining an intimate emotional connection with it. Based on Scott's three-pillar institutional perspective, this study traces its origins from the Chinese cultural context, and discusses the legitimacy basis of donations in the Chinese cultural context and why donations can improve CFP. On this basis, the moderating effect of the chairman's hometown attachment on the corporate donation-performance relationship is empirically tested. Through logical deduction, hometown attachment may form legitimacy pressure to weaken the above relationship or leverage more legitimacy resources to strengthen such a relationship. Which effect dominates? The empirical results in this study of A-share listed firms from 2009 to 2018 show that the moderating role of hometown attachment is more in line with the resource theory than the former pressure theory. Further research shows that the government and consumers are important providers of these legitimacy resources. This study reveals the mechanism for legitimacy acquisition through corporate donations in the Chinese context and answers the question of what the chairman's hometown attachment brings about to their donation performance, providing some inspiration for practice.

Board Membership Changes And Financial Performance: The Moderating Role Of Family Firms

The aim of this study is to examine a possible relationship of corporate financial performance and board membership changes. As a consequence, whether too little or too much board membership changes would produce a detrimental impact to financial performance. Furthermore, this study investigated whether this effect is more pronounced in family firms over non-family firms. Based on the agency theory and stewardship perspective, the results indicate that board membership changes are significant for family firms towards short-term financial performance indicators, with positive effect above a certain interval, though it signaling to the market may not be relevant. Also provides insightful examination of a specific corporate governance issue that is valuable both for academics and practitioners.

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Heterogeneity Affect Corporate Financial Performance Through Technological Innovation? The Moderating Effects of Advertising Intensity.

In this study, we examine the effects of firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR), technological innovation, and advertising intensity on corporate financial performance (CFP). Prior research has shown mixed findings for the CSR–CFP relationship. To provide additional evidence and alternative explanations for these mixed findings, we built a moderated mediating model by combining the knowledge-based view with the stakeholder theory. We use this model to examine whether CSR influences CFP by affecting technological innovation, and whether such mediating effects are moderated by advertising intensity. We classify heterogeneous CSR activities into technical and institutional activities. Using data from 2010 to 2018 on Chinese listed firms, we find that superior technical CSR performance can enhance CFP by promoting technological innovation and that it promotes technological innovation to a greater extent when advertising intensity is higher. However, institutional CSR does not affect technological innovation or CFP. The findings suggest that to improve the firm's financial position, its resources should be allocated effectively to technical CSR activities as well as to innovation and advertising.

Effects of greenwashing on financial performance: Moderation through local environmental regulation and media coverage

AbstractRecent research suggests that the effect of greenwashing and corporate financial performance (CFP) is ambiguous. This call for study the contextual factors that create contingencies in the greenwashing–CFP relationship. Using a sample of 2816 observations covering 735 Chinese‐listed firms in 21 different industries from 2013 to 2017, this research examines the effect of greenwashing on CFP and explores the moderating effects of local environmental regulation, media visibility and media favourability. Results show that greenwashing positively affects CFP and effect weakened with stringent environmental regulations and reversed with low media favourability. Our finding implies that stakeholders could hardly identify greenwashing in the context of an emerging economy with high‐level information asymmetry. However, local environmental regulation and negative media coverage could reduce this information asymmetry, making greenwashing easier to be identified. It is the first study to investigate greenwashing–CFP relationship from institutional environment perspective.

Ownership Characteristics and Financial Performance: Evidence from Chinese Split-Share Structure Reform

This paper investigates the relationship between two characteristics of corporate governance (concentrated and state ownership) and firm financial performance by bringing new and extensive evidence from an emerging market. Further, this study examines the impact of the recent stock split reform in China on the corporate ownership characteristics–firm performance relationship. The final sample of this study is comprised of 234 firms with 2340 annual observation values. The study hypotheses are examined using regression analysis of panel data. We found that concentrated ownership is positively and significantly related to firm performance. However, state ownership has a significant negative impact on firm performance. Further, we observed that the stock split reform has a substantial and positive effect on the ownership–corporate financial performance relationship. In particular, the positive relationship between ownership concentration and firm performance has increased following the split-share structure reform. The negative relationship between state ownership and corporate financial performance has been mitigated following the split-share structure reform. We contribute to the existing literature on corporate governance by investigating the ownership–corporate financial performance relationship in a unique research setting based on the impact of an exogenous regulatory change, namely, the split-share structure reform in China. The study presents implications for regulators, investors, and researchers interested in examining developing markets such as China. Our results imply that the institutional reform of the Chinese stock market has benefitted investors through enhancing corporate financial performance. The findings suggest that the reform of the Chinese stock market has significantly shaped the impact of ownership structure on corporate financial performance in a valuable way for effective capital allocation. Thus, collectively, the split-share structure reform enhances the quality of corporate governance, which is pivotal to the growth of the country’s economy. This, in turn, has policy implications for other emerging economies.

ESG–CFP Linkages: A Review of Its Antecedents and Scope for Future Research

The last two decades have seen a gradual shift in the reporting practices of the corporate sector across the globe. Besides reporting the standard financial statements, there is increased emphasis on qualitative reporting particularly issues related to governance, sustainability and society, popularly referred to as environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting ( Griffin & Sun, 2018 ). In this regard, sustainability issues are being more aggressively addressed by the firms. This study aims at identifying and empirically examining the antecedents that influence the relationship between ESG disclosures of organisations and its corporate financial performance (CFP). The study uses a sample of BSE-200 companies and employs multiple regression technique to ascertain the ESG–CFP relationship. The results obtained show that ESG and CFP are negatively related, and the control variables have a significant impact on this association. The study provides insights from the perspective of an emerging economy and contributes to both the managerial decision-making and policy formulation. It also paves the way for future research.

The value of expertise: how chief executive officer and board corporate social responsibility expertise enhance the financial effects of firms’ corporate social responsibility initiatives

PurposeIn light of the conflict between scholarly findings supporting corporate social responsibility’s positive impact on corporate financial performance (CFP) versus findings showing negative impact on CFP, the academic literature has reoriented toward determining the contingency conditions that affect the underlying relationships. This paper aims to investigate two potential contingency factors, the chief executive officer’s (CEO) corporate social responsibility (CSR) expertise and board members’ CSR expertise.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses an unbalanced panel of archival data of 168 firms from the S&P 500 index for the period 2006–2013. The analytic model is estimated using the feasible generalized least squares regression method with heteroscedasticity and panel-specific AR1 autocorrelation.FindingsThe findings reinforce the perspective that CSR positively affects the firm’s financial performance. The authors find that firms realize optimal results from their CSR investments when both the board and the CEO have greater CSR expertise. In other words, both, CEO CSR expertise and board CSR expertise positively impact the CSR–CFP relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this study advance the literature in three important areas, namely, the social responsibility–financial responsibility relationship, the governance literature and upper echelons theory. First, the theoretical arguments and the empirical evidence highlight that CSR–CFP relationship is at least partly contingent upon the CEO’s and board members’ CSR expertise. Second, this study introduces two important variables: the CEO and board’s CSR experience as proxies for their CSR expertise. Future researchers may consider decomposing the various components of CSR to study the differential impact of each component on financial performance.Practical implicationsFirst, this study finds that while the CEO CSR expertise may be of value for the firm, such value can only be realized under a capable and effective board that has adequate knowledge in the field of CSR. Second, this study shows that the best-case scenario for firms occurs when both its board members and CEO have had greater prior CSR involvement that contributed to their knowledge inventory and skills. Greater knowledge and skills enhance the quality of the decisions that comprise the firm’s CSR strategy.Originality/valueWhile it seems intuitive that prior CSR knowledge and expertise should lead to more and better CSR initiatives, there are few if any studies that empirically examine the effects of this premise on a firm’s financial performance. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study appears to be the first that directly tests the relationship between executives’ CSR experience and firm performance.

Moderating Effects of Internationalization between Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: The Case of Construction Firms

The relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) has been crucial in academia and business circles. Numerous construction firms have continued to internationalize construction business over time despite the influence of the COVID-19. The internationalization of construction business makes the CSR–CFP relationship more complicated than usual. Construction firms’ CSR fulfillment serves to engage in reliable relationships with stakeholders and consequently improve CFP. It can bring both benefits and costs to the firm, which suggests that the CSR–CFP relationship is non-linear. This study examines the impacts of CSR on the financial performance of construction firms. We took Chinese-listed construction companies as an example, and an inverted U-shaped curve relationship between CSR and CFP was eventually revealed. Further, the significant moderating role of the degree of corporate internationalization (DOI) in the CSR–CFP relationship is disclosed. The results show that matching a high DOI-high CSR and a low DOI-low CSR is more conducive to CFP promotion. Thus, this research makes contributions to the academic perception of the impacts of CSR and DOI on CFP and provides insights for CSR fulfillment in the international arena.

TALENT MANAGEMENT DISCLOSURE AS A MEDIATOR BETWEEN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

Active participation from the corporate sector in designing and implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities is critical for company resilience and reliance. It has been suggested that companies need to integrate CSR activities with talent management strategies. However, the extant literature on CSR reporting has limited research focusing on talent management in CSR activities. Therefore, this study examines the extent of talent management disclosure (TMD) made by the top 100 Malaysian public-listed companies (PLCs). Particularly, this study examines the mediating effect of TMD on the corporate governance characteristics (CGC) and corporate financial performance (CFP) relationship. Generalised Linear Modelling (GLM) was used to analyse the cross-sectional data. The results indicate that female directors positively influence CFP, whereas independent directors negatively correlate with CFP. This study also finds that TMD has an insignificant moderating role in the CGC and CFP relationship. Nevertheless, the newly developed TMD provides a new perspective on talent management research. TMD is a new research avenue under-researched and needs more academic and business executive attention. Thus, this research invites academia and company management to revisit CSR activities by embedding talent management strategies.

The CSR–CFP relationship in the presence of institutional voids and the moderating role of family ownership

In weak institutional contexts characterized by institutional voids, firms often struggle to demonstrate their ethical conduct. They are seen as raising the costs of influencing stakeholders and correspondingly the level of investment needed in stakeholder influence capacity in order to achieve corporate financial performance (CFP). We hypothesize and find support for a U-shaped curvilinear relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement level and CFP in the context of India—a country characterized by relatively weak institutions. We also investigate whether family firms can help overcome the drawbacks of weak institutional contexts and thus influence the relationship between CSR and CFP. We adopt a large sample, panel data approach to test our theoretical model. We observe a U-shaped relationship, consistent with earlier findings in developed countries. However, we find that this significant U-shaped relationship is observed only in the case of family firms in our sample.

Do ESG Endeavors Assist Firms in Achieving Superior Financial Performance? A Case of 100 Best Corporate Citizens

Increasing interest in sustainability performance (environmental, social, and governance pillar performance [ESGP]) and corporate financial performance (CFP) is noteworthy. However, we do not find any all-inclusive study that employs both individual components of environmental, social, and governance pillars (ESG) as well as the cumulative ESG score on both the accounting and market performance of firms. Furthermore, we do not find any study that puts forth “best practices” in the ESGP-CFP nexus. Therefore, our study intends to provide additional empirical evidence in this debate by including all three pillars of ESG as well as the overall ESG score by employing a unique sample of “100 best corporate citizens” in the United States declared by 3BL Media during 2009 to 2018. For this purpose, we employ panel vector auto regression (PVAR) that allows us to overcome the methodological challenges faced by some earlier empirical studies. The core findings are: (a) for market-based financial performance (market-to-book ratio [MTB] and Tobin’s Q), our results only confirm ESGP–CFP relationship and suggest that sustained higher commitment to the environmental pillar, consistent socially responsible conduct, and rationalized governance mechanism of the sampled firms are perceived value additive by the market players. (b) For accounting-based financial performance (return on equity [ROE] and return on assets [ROA]), we find a mix of ESGP–CFP and CFP–ESGP relationship for ROE only. Furthermore, factor error variance decomposition (FEVD) analysis reveals that environmental, social, and overall ESG performances of the sampled firms are quite good predictors of future CFP in the market. These findings assert that actively pursuing ESG endeavors can assist firms in achieving superior financial performance.

Study of models of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a broad concept, and it has witnessed several versions since its initiation. Without doubt, in the current business and economic scenario, CSR has been gaining momentum; therefore, it is crucial to explore and comprehend the basic responsibility of CSR and sustainable development. It is, therefore, significant to analyse and explore the evolution of CSR throughout the years and link it with sustainable development. The present study analyses and compares the various CSR models based on the order of significance, scope of responsibility, role of philanthropy, CSR–corporate financial performance relationship and attractiveness and its impact on sustainable development. The study reveals that the concept of CSR and sustainable development are steadily stepping towards a unified form, where companies’ commitment towards social obligation brings about practical and exhaustive improvement. It was observed that several models have been proposed and modified, yet there is a wide gap between the concept and practical execution of CSR models due to the different strategies followed by business organizations, which vary from nation to nation depending upon their business environment. The widely accepted stakeholder model suggests that companies should care for the interests of stakeholders, for instance shareholders, traders, consumers, employees and the society, for sustaining its business.

The Impact of CSR and Financial Distress on Financial Performance—Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies of the Manufacturing Industry

This paper explores the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial distress on corporate financial performance (CFP) in Chinese listed companies of the manufacturing industry. Covering a total of 1445 manufacturing observations from 2013 to 2018 by matching the China Stock Market & Accounting Research Database (CSMAR) and Ranking CSR Ratings (RKS) database and regression models, we find that CSR has a significant positive impact on CFP, and the relationship is more pronounced for firms that are more stable. Further, the win-win relationship of CSR and CFP is also stronger in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). These empirical results suggest that enterprises should actively embrace CSR in response to the call of the country. At the same time, corporate stability should be increased to enhance the role of CSR in promoting CFP. We provide a quantitative analysis of the CSR, CFP, and financial distress of listed firms, and help to alleviate managers’ concern of CSR fulfillment and risk control.

The mediating role of natural and social resources in the corporate social responsibility—corporate financial performance relationship

Failure to obtain definitive results regarding the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate financial performance (CFP) has prompted scholars to investigate mechanisms behind this relationship. This paper follows the same path and distinguishes two dimensions of CSR (social and environmental) to expand the pool of potential mediators on the basis of natural‐ and social resource‐based view (RBV) of the firm. In a unique dataset comprising seven potential mediators for 300 companies, a direct relationship only existed between environmental CSR and CFP, in contrast to the “new road” from social CSR to CFP that goes through external reputation and innovativeness—variables that form an opposing mediation.

The Importance of Corporate Social Responsibility Strategic Fit and Times of Economic Hardship

AbstractPrevious research investigating the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) reveals the importance of industry specificity. Drawing on strategic stakeholder theory, we argue that the strategic fit between CSR activities and value chain activities contributes to industry‐specific effects in the CSR–CFP relationship. Given the multidimensional nature of CSR, some CSR activities will be more impactful for certain industries than others, because industries differ in value chain activities and salient stakeholders. Specifically, we propose and test a set of hypotheses for two industries positioned on the different ends of the industry spectrum based on their ecological footprint – healthcare and resource extraction. We further examine the industry specificity of the CSR–CFP relationship by exploring external economic conditions (the 2008–2009 recession) as a boundary condition. Our study contributes to the extant literature by demonstrating the role of strategic fit between CSR and value chain activities in explaining the influence of CSR on CFP. Additional testing of this mechanism in times of economic hardship adds a unique aspect to our theoretical and empirical contributions.

CSR in developing countries – the importance of good governance and economic growth: evidence from Africa

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the effect of public governance and economic growth on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance in Egypt, Morocco, Mauritius, Nigeria and South Africa. It also assesses the trend of CSR performance in these countries over time.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a sample of five countries in Africa for the period 2012-2017. The multivariate regression model was used in testing the research questions/hypotheses. Robustness tests were performed to provide evidence to strengthen the findings of the study.FindingsFindings suggest that both good governance and economic growth are significantly positively associated with CSR performance. However, while good governance has a relatively substantial effect size, economic growth has a small effect size. Overall, both variables have a considerably low confidence interval ratio and therefore stand a good chance of holding up in future research.Research limitations/implicationsThe analysis is limited to within-country effects, thereby forgoing the opportunity to explain between-countries effects. Second, the sample size is relatively small because of the limitation of data availability on CSR in Africa; hence, population generalization is not intended but theory generalization.Practical implicationsFindings have implications for studies on CSR performance in Africa that fail to consider the socio-political and socio-economic level of development as contextual variables in the research design.Originality/valuePrior studies on CSR have focused majorly on CSR performance–corporate financial performance relationship. Furthermore, there are several calls in the literature for research for a new direction on CSR in the context of developing countries, especially Africa. This paper responds to these literature gaps.

An Institutional Theory Approach to the Evolution of the Corporate Social Performance – Corporate Financial Performance Relationship

AbstractIn the present study, we integrate research from the dynamic institutional theory literature to develop a set of theory‐driven hypotheses regarding how the institutionalization of corporate social performance (CSP) in the organizational field over the period 1991–2008 impacts the CSP‐ corporate financial performance (CFP) relationship for firms in the marketplace. The results of our panel time series and dynamic linear estimation models suggest that early CSP adopters are more likely to experience both greater firm profitability and increased stock market valuation as a result of their higher CSP levels. However, they also tend to incur more firm‐idiosyncratic risk for being ahead of the market’s CSP expectations. We also demonstrate that the significant rise in CSP adoption and activities over time, as CSP has become institutionalized, has resulted in CSP becoming a weaker driver of both firm profitability and stock market valuation.

Geographical influences on the relationship between corporate philanthropy and corporate financial performance

ABSTRACT Building on stakeholder theory, the paper argues that geographical differences in stakeholders’ reactions to corporate philanthropy lead to differences in the relationship between corporate philanthropy and corporate financial performance across regions. When comparing the United States and China and different regions within China, it is found that the differences in stakeholder perceptions (as reflected by sinful industry) and information availability (as indicated by advertising intensity) across regions significantly moderate the corporate philanthropy–corporate financial performance relationship. The findings show that the value of corporate philanthropy varies by region and that stakeholder perception and information availability are two important mechanisms through which corporate philanthropy influences corporate financial performance.