Corporate Social Performance Research Articles

The Influence of ESG, SRI, Ethical, and Impact Investing Activities on Portfolio and Financial Performance—Bibliometric Analysis/Mapping and Clustering Analysis

This paper aims to examine the publication metrics of literature related to the influential aspects of ESG (environmental, social, and governance), SRI (socially responsible investing), ethical, and impact investing on the portfolio and financial performance literature. It also seeks to identify major patterns and core themes in this topic and draw lessons from the past literature for future directions. Data from the SCOPUS database were used in this study. The ‘biblioshiny’ R package, also known as ‘bibliometrix 3.0’, was employed to conduct bibliometric analysis, utilising mapping and clustering techniques on 260 articles, in order to distil the comprehensive knowledge and identify emerging trends in ESG, SRI, ethical, and impact investing. The thematic map classified the ESG, SRI, ethical, impact investing and performance relationship themes into four categories of themes: niche themes (SRI, engagement and ESG), motor themes (corporate financial performance, corporate social performance, ESG, ESG factors, sustainability, performance, integrated reporting, gender diversity, and board size), emerging or declining themes (social responsibility, environmental performance, socially responsible investment, ethical investment, and SRI), and basic or transversal themes (financial performance, corporate social performance, ESG performance, environmental, social, and governance). Socially responsible investing, engagement, and ESG imply a position between niche themes and a highly developed topic/emerging or a decreasing theme, while the impact of COVID-19 on sustainability and financial performance implies a position between a highly developed topic/emerging or decreasing theme and a basic theme. The findings contribute to the enhanced understanding of ESG, SRI, ethical, impact investing and performance, which are crucial for an efficient capital market in promoting sustainability and sustainable development. The study offers vital practical implications and future research directions.

Analysis of the Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on MSME Business Performance with Innovation as a Mediating Variable

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of Innovation on Business Performance and to find out that Innovation mediates the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Business performance. The type of research used is quantitative research with a causal form. Data analysis used SmartPLS 3.2.6 software using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) method. The results of this study used 3 variables, namely Corporate Social Responsibility, Innovation and Performance, and the results of the analysis of the 3 variables showed that all hypotheses were significant.

Effect ESG on Financial Performance

Studies related to this research topic still have inconsistent results. The research objective was to examine and determine the effect of corporate social responsibility, environmental performance and sustainability report disclosure on financial performance. Manufacturing companies have a sizable contribution to environmental pollution, so the researchers decided that manufacturing companies on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the 2018-2021 period were the population. This research uses quantitative methods and uses secondary data. Purposive sampling was used as a sampling technique in this study. Companies that fulfill the sample are 10 for 4 years (40). Partial least square is used as a data analysis technique. The results of the study show that corporate social responsibility has a significant positive effect on financial performance, while environmental performance and sustainability reports have an insignificant positive effect.

Does the Board of Directors affects Corporate Social Responsibility Performance? Insights from an SEM-PLS Approach

Los determinantes del desempeño de la responsabilidad social empresarial corresponden a un campo de investigación que no ha sido completamente explorado cuando se utiliza una muestra multinacional. Asi, la investigación pretende analizar la relación entre las características del consejo de administración y el desempeño de la responsabilidad social utilizando una muestra de 776 organizaciones de 20 países entre 2014 y 2021 a través de la utilizacion de un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales. Los resultados muestran una relación positiva entre las características del consejo de administración y el desempeño de la responsabilidad social, principalmente el papel de las mujeres y de los miembros independientes y non executivos.

Does Relationship of Corporate Social Responsibility, Absorptive Capacity and Innovation Performance Exist in Manufacturing Micro Companies?

This research is designed to check the Impact of kinds of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on kinds of Absorptive Capacity( AC) and impact of kinds of Absorptive Capacity( AC) on Innovation performance (IP). Data was collecting from 375 employees of manufacturing micro-companies of Pakistan with the help of purposive sampling. Results indicates that there are positive impact of kinds of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on kinds of Absorptive Capacity( AC). Reserch also describes that there are positive impact of kinds of Absorptive Capacity( AC) on Innovation performance (IP). The study also has managerial implications by revealing the contribution of intangible resources to innovation performance. The research also offers different configurations that production managers might choose to use to achieve innovative by using the concept of absorptive capabilities.

Model for Promoting Corporate Social Performance Measurement and Social Change: Elaboration from Causal Analysis Between the Both

Model for Promoting Corporate Social Performance Measurement and Social Change: Elaboration from Causal Analysis Between the Both

The effect of CSR on corporate social performance: Mediating role of corporate image, green innovation and moderating role of corporate identity

AbstractAlthough some previous studies have demonstrated the positive influence of CSR on corporate performance, astonishingly few studies on CSR practices and their impacts on corporate social performance have been conducted. With growing concerns about companies' social and environmental impacts, our study emphasizes the effect of CSR on corporate social performance to strengthen the existing knowledge of concepts. This study also examines contingent factors that affect the relationship between CSR and corporate social performance. We investigate the mediation role of corporate image and green innovation that may affect the social performance of CSR practices. This differs from previous research that studied the direct relationship between CSR and corporate performance. We selected 650 participants from companies in Ghana and a structural equation model (SEM) by a bootstrap technique in Amos 23.0 was performed. We demonstrate that CSR activities relate to corporate social performance through corporate image and green innovation. Additionally, our results establish that corporate identity moderates the relationships between corporate image and social performance, green innovation and corporate social performance. The study makes conceptual and practical contributions to the existing understanding of CSR developments and their generalizability.

Does green innovation mediate corporate social responsibility and environmental performance? Empirical evidence from emerging markets

PurposeThis paper examines the mediation role of green innovation in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and environmental performance of manufacturing firms in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe paper chose African emerging markets and surveyed managers from manufacturing firms. With 301 questionnaires qualified for this study’s final analyses, the authors adopt the multiple regression with mediation models to estimates the nexus among study variables.FindingsResults evidence that both corporate social responsibility and green innovation has a positive and significant impact on environmental performance. Interestingly, the authors find that corporate social responsibility significantly improves environmental performance through green innovation indicating that firms could essentially build their dynamic resource and innovation capabilities in sustainability leading to enhanced environmental performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper develops a dynamic resource-based view of firm environmental performance illustrating how firms use resources to build strategic capabilities for competitive advantage, which leads to improved environmental performance. The paper highlights the mediation role of green innovation on corporate social responsibility and environmental performance relationships.Practical implicationsThis study's results provide significant insights to owners and managers of manufacturing companies to integrate corporate social responsibility and green innovation to ensure environmental performance and sustainability. Furthermore, policy makers should encourage green innovation when design sustainable development systems in the manufacturing industry.Originality/valueThe paper provides a valuable model showing how green innovation mediates corporate social responsibility to improve environmental performance and build competitive advantages considering both small, medium, and large manufacturing enterprises in emerging countries.

The Impact of Digital Transformation on Corporate ESG Performance: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

This study uses information from listed firms on China's Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets to analyze how the digital transformation has impacted corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance between 2010 and 2020. The empirical results demonstrate that the influence of digital transformation on ESG performance is only marginally favorable. Important processes including green technology development, information transparency, decision-making, and operational efficiency all contribute to a company's ESG performance through digital transformation. According to the study's findings, non-state-owned enterprises, younger corporations, and larger companies are more likely to have positive benefits of digital transformation on ESG performance. These findings have practical implications for organizations and decision-makers seeking to enhance ESG performance through digital transformation.

The Influence of External Stakeholders on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Reporting: Toward a Conceptual Framework for ESG Disclosure

In recent years, governments and investors globally are compelling major corporate organizations to disclose important environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. The continued flatlining of ESG reporting quality has led some parties to call on policymakers to take advantage of the distinct contextual pressure from external stakeholders to improve corporate ESG commitments. However, the relationship between external stakeholders and ESG disclosure remains ambiguous, both theoretically and empirically. Grounded in stakeholder theory, legitimacy theory, resource-based theory, and slack resource theory, this article reconceptualizes Ullmann’s 1985 model of corporate social performance to present a novel conceptual framework to examine the external stakeholders-ESG disclosure relationship. This article contributes to the literature by illustrating the mediating effect of the strategic posture and the moderating effect of corporate financial performance on corporate ESG discourse perpetuated by powerful stakeholders.

People and investor attention to climate change

The paper analyses whether people’s attention to climate change emergency contributes to the stock market returns by accounting for the mitigation role of the corporate social performance proxied by ESG score. We address one research question: how does climate change attention affect the investors’ trading behavior and, consequently, the stock price returns of local firms? The Google Search Volume Index (GSVI) is used to evaluate the attention parameter. In a global setting, made by 2941 stocks in both advanced and emerging economies between 2006 and 2019, we revealed that attention to climate change helps investors to have a significantly positive effect on returns of stocks with high ESG scores compared to low sustainable stocks. Moreover, we observe an interesting changing in the relationship between corporate social performance and people attention, when deepening the analysis from the perspective of sectorial distribution. Our results are robust to different risk factor models, environmental policy stringency framework, sin industries focus, and when changing people’s attention indicator.

Liabilities of origin and its influence on firm's corporate social performance? A study of emerging market multinational corporations

AbstractThis study draws upon the institutional‐based view to examine how home country institutional voids affect the corporate social performance (CSP) of emerging market multinational corporations (EMNCs). We propose that home country institutional voids of EMNCs are positively related to CSP. We also argue that EMNCs' internationalization and visibility will further augment the above relationships. We tested our hypotheses using a sample of 89 EMNCs from 10 countries from 2009 to 2018 and found support for our arguments. Our findings show that EMNCs use CSP to overcome the liabilities of origin due to their home‐country institutional voids. Internationalization and visibility increase the challenges of origin liabilities and EMNCs respond by enhancing their CSP. Our research adds to the existing knowledge base on institutional voids within the realm of international business.

Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure and Performance in China: Does the Background of Foreign Women Directors Matter?

In the context of economic advancement, developing economy firms are witnessing a growing influx of directors with foreign backgrounds who are joining their corporate boards. Giving the significance of this emerging labor market trend for board members and the particular value of women directors in corporate governance, this study delves into the impact of women directors’ foreign backgrounds on a firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure and performance. Using a dataset of listed firms on Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2010 to 2019, we find that the foreign education and the work experience of women directors improve firm CSR disclosure and performance. Corporate boards with a higher proportion of women directors with foreign education experience tend to disclose more CSR information. And women directors with foreign work experience have a more pronounced impact on enhanced CSR performance. This study provides new insights into integrating stakeholder, social role, and neo-institutional theories to advance the understanding of CSR engagement in emerging economies.

Evolution and assessment of corporate social performance through the lens of top category journals: a theoretical structural analysis

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic review of the literature of the studies that have examined several theoretical perspectives on corporate social performance (CSP) and identify possible future research questions based on various theoretical viewpoints.Design/methodology/approachThe study used systematic literature review analysis on a sample of 667 studies published in top A* and A category journals listed in the Australian Business Dean Council list. The present study derived articles between 1975 and 2023 from the SCOPUS database by using relevant keywords to identify research activities in CSP.FindingsThe findings suggest that many studies on CSP have been undertaken globally. But there is a lack of studies on various theoretical perspectives, including peer uncertainty evaluation, buyer–supplier sustainability links, the role of primary stakeholders (especially consumers, employees, suppliers and secondary stakeholders), the use of technology, firm-related heterogeneities, and the role of demographic and socio-economic factors. Future research areas are recommended.Research limitations/implicationsThe study investigates existing research gaps to identify possible future research questions and frameworks that can be explored to advance the research on CSP.Practical implicationsThe research also provides implications for firms in terms of understanding diverse theoretical perspectives to develop strategies to improve a firm’s social performance.Originality/value The findings are derived from a systematic review of the literature in top-category studies that examined existing theories and frameworks in the CSP domain. This highlights the importance of other understudied complementary theories, such as complexity theory, spillover theory, critical mass theory, slack theory and so on, and related variables that can improve a firm’s social performance. Evaluation of existing theoretical perspectives is not included in other review studies.

Firm Performance: The Role of Determinant Variables Water Awareness, Intellectual Capital, and Corporate Social Responsibility

Purpose: This study aims to investigate of firm's performance through water awareness, intellectual capital, and corporate social responsibility. Theoretical framework: The main goal of the signaling theory by Spence (2002) is to reduce the information asymmetry between two parties. Research by Ericson and Call (2008), Shabaati et al. (2010), Helena, Pedro, and Jardon (2010), and others have demonstrated that intellectual capital has a favorable impact on performance. Clacher, Hagendorff, Jo, and Harjoto (2012), as well as Ameer and Othman (2012), discovered a beneficial relationship between CSR and a company's financial performance. Design/methodology/approach: The present study was conducted on 21 manufacturing companies in Indonesia with a total of 106 samples. The data of the present study were financial reports and sustainability reports which were obtained from the Indonesian stock exchange website and each company's website during the period 2015-2019 by using purposive sampling techniques and multiple linear regression methods. Findings: The findings revealed that water awareness and corporate social responsibility affect company performance, but not the firm’s intellectual capital. However, a firm's sustainability is empirically proven to affect company performance. Research, Practical & Social implications: This study is useful for managers to examine the effectiveness of water awareness and sustainability practices including intellectual capital towards the company's performance. Originality/value: The value of the study is useful for managers to examine the affect company performance, but not the firm’s intellectual capital. However, a firm's sustainability is empirically proven to affect company performance. This measurement of firm’s sustainability model will be very useful for decision makers and policy makers.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Performance of Listed Pharmaceutical Sector Firms in Nigeria

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility and performance of listed pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria. Using the ex-post facto research design, secondary data was collected from published annual reports of sampled five pharmaceutical companies listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group from 2015 to 2021. The ordinary least square regression technique was used in conjunction with E-views version 9 computer software to evaluate the collected data. Corporate social responsibility was found to have a positive and statistically significant relationship with profits for publicly listed pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria. Policies favoring an acceptable rise in corporate social responsibility were recommended as a goal for the management of pharmaceutical businesses.

Corporate Social Performance, Legitimacy, and the Choice of Foreign Partners by State‐Controlled Entities in the Global Extractive Industries

AbstractWe study the outcome of the decision of a state‐controlled entity (SCE) to form an international joint venture (IJV) with a foreign partner in the SCE's country. Focusing on the perspective of the host SCE, we propose that in its search for a partner, the SCE will evaluate the sociopolitical legitimacy effect of a candidate partner's corporate social performance (CSP). Thereby, the SCE will consider CSP an important selection criterion because of its legitimacy effect on the selection decision, the SCE, the IJV, and the host state in the eyes of salient local and international stakeholders. Moreover, the legitimacy effect of a candidate partner's CSP will further influence the decision outcome through its interaction with the level of corruption in the candidate partner's home country, the extant sociopolitical legitimacy of the host state, and the number of neighbouring countries of the host country participating in international multi‐stakeholder initiatives. We find support for our hypotheses using a novel sample of extractive industries IJVs between SCEs from 48 countries and 203 foreign partners from 22 countries for the period 2000–15.

Digital transformation, financing constraints, and corporate environmental, social, and governance performance

AbstractDigital transformation is globally pervasive, and exploring how it can shape enterprises' sustainable development is significant. Using the panel data of 710 listed corporates in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper empirically investigates the impact of digital transformation on corporate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance with the fixed effect model and the SYS‐GMM method. The results indicate that digital transformation significantly improves corporate ESG performance, especially environmental and social performance. A looser financing constraint (FC) environment will make the improvements in ESG performance from digital transformation more visible. Among corporates with low FCs, private corporates, and non‐technical corporates, digital transformation has a more noticeable effect on improving ESG performance by easing FCs. Our research presents implications for policymakers and business decision‐makers to achieve alignment between corporate digitalization and sustainability.

The Formation of Reputation in CSR Disclosure: The Role of Signal Transmission and Sensemaking Processes of Stakeholders

A growing number of companies are issuing corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports to publicize their commitment to sustainable development. However, skepticism remains among stakeholders about firms’ CSR information, which could hinder the success of worldwide CSR campaigns. Our paper examines mechanisms of how CSR disclosure resonates with stakeholders and influences their attitudes towards firms. Extending the current knowledge of CSR signaling effects, this paper provides a framework illustrating the interplay between CSR signaling properties and readers’ sensemaking processes, thereby predicting how corporate reputation is shaped through CSR communication. In order to test our theoretical hypotheses, a survey was conducted on 53 firms with 1521 respondents. The results show that the better the readers’ comprehension of a CSR report is, the stronger the signals of authenticity and corporate social performance (CSP) they perceive, the better the report value and value fit are recognized, and eventually, the more trust they hold for the firm. The relationship between comprehension of CSR reports and trust is partially mediated by the signaling-sensemaking process. Our research contributes to the literature on micro-foundations of strategic CSR by applying signaling theory in the context of CSR disclosure. The research findings have practical implications for firms’ CSR disclosure strategies.

ESG and Firm Performance: A Literature Review

With the slowdown of global economy and the transformation of China economy, the application of ESG is becoming more and more important for the future development of enterprises all around the world. How enterprises influence short-term and long-term performance through ESG has become the focus of academic attention. ESG refers to Environmental, Social, and Governance. It is an investment concept and enterprise evaluation standard that focuses on corporate environmental, social and corporate governance performance. This paper summarizes the relationship between ESG and enterprise performance. Secondly, it analyzes the studies on ESG disclosure and its quality and performance. Finally, it summarizes some literatures related to ESG performance and enterprise comprehensive performance and makes comments.