Revisiting the financial performance – corporate social performance link

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 2586-2602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serin Choi ◽  
Seoki Lee

Purpose The existing literature has focused heavily on investigating the effect of corporate social performance (CSP) on financial performance (FP) but has not paid sufficient attention to an inverse causation of the relationship. Moreover, while some of the literature argues that FP positively affects CSP, based on the slack resources theory, others have found negative effects of FP on CSP, supporting the managerial opportunism perspective. Thus, this paper aims to address the impact of FP on CSP. Further, this study examines the moderating role of franchising to better understand the relationship. Design/methodology/approach This study uses and expands the models derived from the CSP literature to confirm the effects of FP on CSP with the moderating role of franchising within the restaurant industry. Using two-way fixed effects models, it effectively addresses important problems embedded in the panel data. Findings The findings show a positive effect of FP on CSP, which is inconsistent with Park and Lee’s (2009) findings and supports the slack resources theory. Further, the interesting results show that the impact of FP on CSP diminishes as a firm franchises more, supporting the double-sided moral hazard framework of the agency theory. Originality/value This paper fills the lacuna in both the existing literature on the relationship between CSP and FP and the franchising. This study contributes to enhancing restaurant practitioners’ understanding of the double-sided moral hazard of agency theory unique to franchising context.

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Dolores Odriozola ◽  
Antonio Martin ◽  
Ladislao Luna

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse if there is a circular relationship of causality between the labour dimension of corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP). Design/methodology/approach The sample is formed by the best companies to work for in Spain according to the labour reputation (LR) ranking developed by MERCO from 2006 to 2013. This study overcomes the limitations of previous studies using the panel data methodology (System generalised method of moments) and the Granger causality test. Findings The results suggest that the labour dimension of CSP cause CFP, but there is not causality in the opposite direction. Originality/value Studies about the relationship between dimensions of CSP and CFP demonstrated that there are divergences in the results depending on the dimension analysed. Despite managers and employees are interested in the impact of labour dimension of CSP on CFP, there are few studies about it and they have important limitations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-70
Author(s):  
Jose Elenilson Cruz ◽  
Rafael Barreiros Porto

Corporate social performance can be understood as a way to measure the efficiency of interactions between companies and their main stakeholders. This evaluation has led to some steps forward in research and management implications. One of its main issues, which is the study of the relationship between social and financial performance, focuses on traditional joint-stock companies. This fact reveals a gap concerning the object of study in the literature of the area. The importance of investigating small and medium companies (SMCs) lies in their social and economic relevance and also in new evidences these studies may provide. After the theoretical discussion, this study presents a conceptual model composed of research propositions to be tested by future empirical studies that wish to answer the following question: in small and medium companies there are relations of cause and effect between social and financial performance? The test of the proposals suggested can reveal, among other results, the categories of social performance of SMCs most affected by a higher financial performance, as established by the premises of theoretical slack-resources; if the impact of these categories on the financial performance is qualified by way of management, confirming assumptions of the theory good management, or if there are no significant differences between the social performance of SMEs with higher financial performance and SMEs with low financial performance, revealing the existence of non-financial factors also influence social performance.


2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hasan Fauzi ◽  
Lois S. Mahoney ◽  
Azhar Abdul Rahman

This study examines the relationship of corporate social performance (CSP) to corporate financial performance (CFP) to determine if CSP is related to firm performance.  Additionally, it examines whether firm size or industry affects the relationships between CSR and CSP. This study  advances the literature as it examines this relationship for companies in a developing country, Indonesia, along with examining the impact of moderating variables on this relationship. Two models were developed: the first model was derived using slack resource theory and the second model was developed using the good management theory. Through the examination of 383 firms, the result of the study failed to find a significant relationship between CSP and CFP in either model.  Further analysis, using the slack resource theory, did find that company size had a significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between CSP and CFP.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shafat Maqbool ◽  
Nasir Zamir

PurposeThe research on the role of corporate social responsibility in investors' decision process has proliferated over the past few decades. This paper aims to explore the mediating role of financial performance in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and institutional investors.Design/methodology/approachPanel regression was performed on a sample of 29 commercial banks nine years from 2009 to 2017.FindingsThe initial findings of the study show that that corporate social responsibility has a positive and significant impact on institutional investors. However, when the interaction term (financial performance) was incorporated, the relationship between CSR and institutional turns out to be neutral. The study concludes that financial performance plays a pivotal role in the selection of investment avenues.Originality/valueIn Indian context, there is a dearth of research work which studies the impact of sustainable practices on investors' decision process. This topic has received wider attention but lacks insights from developing countries, like India. This article presents a new approach to verify the relationship through the mediating variable (financial performance).


Author(s):  
Punit Arora

Over 30 years of research on the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and financial performance (FP) has yielded no conclusive results. Researchers have tried to legitimize (or discredit) social performance on the basis of its surmised impact on corporate profitability. However, the empirical evidence on the topic has been as divisive as the theoretical propositioning. By reviewing the theory and evidence on the topic, this article puts forth four intertwined propositions that could be confounding these results: failure to consider the impact of corporate governance, lumping together all sorts of expenditures under the rubric of social performance, failure to consider the stakeholder relationships, and above all, not accounting for the past reputation and stakeholder influence capacity of the firm. In particular, we contend that it is the employment relations that run like a common thread among these factors and hold the key to the dynamics of CSP-FP link.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Waheed ◽  
Qingyu Zhang ◽  
Abaid Ullah Zafar ◽  
Hashim Zameer ◽  
Muhammad Ashfaq ◽  
...  

PurposeThis study investigates the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on organizational performance, especially competitive performance (CP) along with moderating role of the organizational culture (OC) from the banking sector of China. Drawing on the stakeholder theory, the first goal is to examine the relationships between CSR and organizational CP. Second, the purpose is to evaluate the moderation of OC between the relationship of CSR and CP, respectively.Design/methodology/approachSEM using SmartPLS was majorly engaged to ascertain the relationship and to inquire the assumed hypotheses. The convenience sampling was engaged to collect the data from the Chinese banking market with the help of students, colleagues and personal visits.FindingsThe findings exhibited that CSR both external and internal CSR has significant correlations on organizational CP within banking sector of China. Second, the findings revealed a positive moderation influence of OC between the relationships of CSR and organizational CP. The comprehensive analysis of each factor of CSR on organizational CP was autonomously inspected to understand the insights which ensure that how the incorporation of CSR and OC activities may improve organizational CP.Research limitations/implicationsThis study faces numerous limitations related to sample and geographic locations that assure new work possibilities for researchers across the world.Practical implicationsThis study equips insightful information for management on how organizations can obtain CP by consolidating CSR and OC activities as their more productive strategic tools. This article endows with potential theoretical and managerial implications with empirical addition to concerned literature of OC, CSR and organizational CP.Social implicationsUnderstanding OC and CSR activities can provide interesting and helpful insights for the personnel to perform well within the banking institutes.Originality/valueThe topic of CSR and culture has been known as the evolving concept that is getting strong concern for the researchers. The additional work particularly empirical is yet required to explore the insights on CSR and OC themes worldwide, especially in developing nations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Canavati

Purpose Empirical studies provide conflicting conclusions regarding the corporate social performance (CSP) of family firms. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the existing empirical evidence and examine the potential role of research design and contextual factors. Design/methodology/approach A meta-analysis of existing empirical studies was performed to examine the role of sampling, measurement and contextual factors in explaining the different and often conflicting results of empirical studies in the family business literature. Findings The overall relationship between family firms and CSP is positive. The relationship between family firms and CSP is positive for private family firms but is negative for public family firms. The relationship between family firms and CSP is positive when family involvement includes both family ownership and management as opposed to only family ownership or family management. Private family firms care more and public family firms care less about the community, environment, and employees than private and public nonfamily firms. The relationship between family firms and CSP is stronger in institutional environments with weak labor and corporate governance regulatory frameworks. Research limitations/implications The operationalization of both the family firm and CSP constructs significantly predicts the magnitude and direction of the relationship between family firms and CSP. Practical implications Family firms should become more skilled at measuring and disseminating information about the firm’s CSP. Family firms should work to improve public perceptions about the CSP of family firms. Social implications Policy should encourage family firms to remain privately owned by the family. Policy should also incentivize the involvement of family owners in the management of family firms. Originality/value Although several literature reviews address the relationship between family firms and CSP, this is the first review to use the meta-analysis method. The authors contribute to the family business literature by analyzing how differences in study-, firm- and country-level factors can explain some of the variance in the results of the studies in the literature.


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