scholarly journals The Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Financial Performance: A Moderating Effect of Economic Policy Uncertainty

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 304
Author(s):  
Van-Thi Dao ◽  
Manh-Trung Phung ◽  
Hongwei Cheng

Within recent decades, researches on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been receiving more attention over the world. The existing literature on CSR is very diverse, both in evaluating the performance of CSR activities as well as and the relationship between CSR disclosure and firms’ outcome. This paper extends the literature of the latter case, that is, not only it aims to purely examine the relationship between CSR disclosure activities and corporate financial performance (CFP), but also consider this nexus under economic policy uncertainty (EPU) context. Our primary data is collected from more than 500 listed companies in the Vietnamese stock market from 2013 through 2017, while secondary data (CSR and EPU) are self-calculated under serial criteria. Our results support the hypothesis that the more companies intensively disclose CSR, the higher financial performance (both ROA and Tobin’s Q) they could obtain. More interestingly, we find that while EPU seems to weakly moderate the relationship between CSR disclosure and “internal financial performance” (ROA), it will significantly diminish the effect of CSR toward “external financial performance” (Tobin’s Q). The research shed light on an approach to measure CSR disclosure indexes for the emerging market as in Vietnam. Our findings encourage the firm’s managers to pay more attention to CSR disclosure activities due to the positive benefit that their firm could obtain and suggest policymakers to maintain a stable economic background for a sustainable market.

1970 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Bruce Walters ◽  
Sammy Muriithi ◽  
Otis Gilley

The link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement and firmfinancial performance has been examined in a variety of contexts. We extend thislink to an understudied but important context for strategic decisions: environmentaluncertainty. We draw on stakeholder theory to investigate the potential moderatinginfluence of an increasingly important measure of environmental uncertainty –economic policy uncertainty (EPU), on the CSR-performance relationship. Paneldata analysis of 484 firms using KLD data and the Compustat/Capital IQ databasereveal that EPU appears to moderate the relationship between CSR and financialperformance. Moreover, supplemental analysis reveals that this moderatedrelationship varies when considering individual components of CSR. Implicationsfor both research and practice are suggested regarding managers’ emphases amongvarious CSR initiatives in times of high policy uncertainty.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianjiao Zhao ◽  
Xiang Xiao ◽  
Bingshi Zhang

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to show how the external issue of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) affects enterprises’ corporate social responsibility (CSR). Design/methodology/approach This study investigates the relationship between EPU and CSR based on the Chinese capital market from 2010 to 2018. Following the most recent studies focused on economic policy uncertainty, this paper uses the news-based method proposed by Baker et al. (2016) to measure EPU and explore the effect of EPU on CSR, as well as the mediating role of state ownership in such a relationship. Findings Empirical results show that increasing EPU will restrain enterprises’ social responsibility behaviour and the inhibitory effect is more obvious for state-owned enterprises. Further analyses reveal that the inhibitory effect of EPU on CSR is stronger for enterprises that face severe financial constraints and is significant for various components of CSR, and trade policy uncertainty could also curb enterprises’ social responsibility behaviour. Practical implications As a stable economic environment is important for enterprises’ CSR engagement, the present study’s conclusions can help policymakers better understand the implications of policy stability for enterprises’ financial and non-financial decisions and especially their CSR decisions. Social implications With the increasing attention paid to the CSR of enterprises, this study provides evidence that enterprises should develop appropriate CSR strategies according to the economic policy environment and enhance their capacity to withstand the risks generated by EPU. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to analyse the relationship between EPU and CSR. The results contribute to a better understanding of what issues influence enterprises’ CSR engagement, highlighting the importance of a stable economic policy environment and of enterprises’ ability to withstand risks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sayeed Zafar Qazi ◽  
Parvesh Kumar Aspal

Strategic managers are persistently accosting with the decision of switching the scared corporate resource for the community welfare to balance the shareholders’ and multiple stakeholders’ interests. Corporate houses are presumed to not only intensify the economic priorities of investors, but must also consider the community and environmental ramifications as well. Presently, corporations are in dilemma over whether investment in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives will be a cost or gain from an economic point of view. For this purpose, the association between CSR disclosure and corporate financial performance has been empirically explored and also the company characteristic has been considered as a significant and interesting factor influencing the association between CSR and corporate financial performance. The prime objective of the present paper is to examine the impact of companies’ characteristics i.e., Age of company on the relationship between corporate social responsibility disclosure and corporate financial performance. Panel data regression statistical technique has been applied to investigate and analyze the relationship. The findings of the study reveal that companies CSR have significant influence on their financial performances.  But, on the other hand the company characteristic, age of the company has no significant impact on the corporate financial performance. The findings are found consistent with earlier studies, which validate the company’s venture in undertaking the CSR initiatives. The present study addresses theoretical as well as empirical support and inspiration for the corporations towards CSR initiatives.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-85
Author(s):  
Annisa Putri Caesari ◽  
Abdul Kohar Irwanto ◽  
Muhammad Syamsun

The main objective of a company in running its operational activities is to maximize profit. Apart from that, the company is also obliged to provide maximum contribution to the community. To accommodate the objectives and obligations, the company may apply a system called Corporate Governance (CG). The company can also implement Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as its significant step in contributing to the community. The implementation of CG and CSR is related because CSR is a consequence of CG implementation. In addition to CG and CSR are interconnected, CG and CSR are also interconnected with Corporate Financial Performance (CFP). Through the implementation of CG, the company can improve CFP. The relationship between CSR and CFP can be associated positively or negatively. The research was conducted on 100 companies listed in Kompas100 index to determine the influence of CG to CSR, influence of CG to CFP, influence CSR to CFP, and influence of CG to the CFP with CSR as a moderating variable. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was used to determine the relationship of these three variables. The results showed that CG influenced positively to CSR, but influenced negatively to CFP. Likewise, CSR influenced negatively to CFP. Due to the negative influence of CG to CFP and CSR to CFP, CG also influenced negatively to the CFP through the disclosure of CSR as moderating variable.Keyword: corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, corporate financial performance, Indeks Kompas100


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