An expanded investigation into the relationship of corporate social responsibility and financial performance

While many studies have examined the relationship of the two constructs of financial performance and CSR, little consensus has emerged. This study investigates the relationship through a set of comprehensive and long-term financial measures, which include both accounting and market returns. Also, an established CSR database generated through a validated CSR research instrument is used in a new, more thorough manner. While the regression analyses reveal no relationship to exist between the constructs, a number of methodological factors are proposed to play a role in contributing to such findings.     

Chief executive officer ability,corporate social responsibility,and financial performance: The moderating role of the environment

This paper seeks to explore how chief executive officer (CEO) ability influences the economic impact of corporate social responsibility strategic decisions. Currently, the evidence on the impact of corporate social responsibility on the value of the company is mixed; in this paper, we aim to observe the moderate role played by this particularity of the CEO in the relationship between socially responsible commitment and financial performance. Our results identify that the most able CEOs make investments in social and environmental practices that lead to greater financial performance; in contrast, the less able CEOs can overinvest or underinvest in an opportunistic way for personal benefit at shareholders' expense. In addition, the role that CEO ability plays in social and environmental strategies is particularly pertinent in munificent environments that foment managerial discretion; in these contexts, high managerial ability leads to investment in socially responsible performance, which benefits shareholders by alleviating moral hazard.     

Translating corporate social performance into financial performance: exploring the moderating role of high-performance work practices

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of high-performance work practices (HPWPs) in helping to translate corporate social performance (CSP) into corporate financial performance (CFP). We employ arguments from the behavioral view of human resource management to highlight the vertical connection between a firm's proclivity for CSP and the management practices it adopts. Furthermore, we examine the moderating influence of HPWPs on the CSP–CFP linkage. Results suggest that HPWPs moderate the relationship between CSP and financial outcomes, and suggest that human resource practices may play an important role in enhancing a positive CSP–CFP relationship by helping to vertically align the behaviors of employees with the values and orientation of the organization.     

中国企业社会责任评价研究综述

企业社会责任评价研究日渐成为国内普遍关注的热点。文章从评价指标体系、评价方法、企业社会责任的实证研究等方面出发,综述了国内企业社会责任评价研究现状,并对存在的问题进行了分析。     

企业社会责任与和谐社会的构建

构建社会主义和谐社会涉及到各个社会组织的社会责任,其中企业的社会责任在整个社会组织的责任体系中占有重要地位,发挥着重要作用。文章从企业社会责任的概念和内容出发,分析了我国企业履行社会责任的现状并提出加强企业履行社会责任的对策,从而为建设我国社会主义和谐社会做出应有的贡献。     

Corporate responsibility activities and economic performance: a theory of why and how they are connected

Whether a firm undertakes corporate responsibility (CR) activities for strategic or altruistic reasons, it is important to understand the relationship between such activities and economic performance. CR activities may be distinguished based on which combination of three possible outputs – learning, reputation and CR outcomes – they produce. This distinction matters not only for the ultimate environmental and social sustainability but also for the relationship between CR activities and economic performance. Taking advantage of this distinction, an integrative synthesis of knowledge of the relationship between CR activities and economic performance can be developed that presents the relationship in terms of a dynamic, case‐specific, inverted U‐shaped efficiency frontier and the vertical distance from this frontier. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Corporate social responsibility and sustainability reporting on the Internet

All material related to environmental and social performance on the corporate internet sites of 454 Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 1000 companies in 25 industrial sectors was analyzed using the Pacific Sustainability Index. Maximum scores for individual sectors were 20–75 percent of the total possible, highest in the largest and most environmentally sensitive sectors and ranging generally linearly, as shown by plotting score versus rank, down to nearly zero in every sector. None of the variation in score is explained by corporate revenue in the Asian and European firms in this sample (revenues greater than about $9 billion), but there is a very weak correlation between score and revenue for American firms of this size, and a stronger one when Fortune 1000 companies (all American) with revenues smaller than this are included, suggesting that, as corporate size reaches a certain threshold, sustainability reporting becomes independent of it. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Exploring environmental,social, and governance disclosure effects on the S&P 500 financial performance

Much of the literature measuring the relationship between environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores and firm performance treats the score as a measure of sustainability performance. In this study, we treat a firm's ESG score as a demonstration of strategic choice in the level of transparency that results in increased firm performance as measured by Tobin's Q and return on assets. Performance differences are a result of choice moderated by the size of the firm as measured by employees and sales. We analyze 467 firms in the S&P 500 from 2009 to 2015. Applying legitimacy and stakeholder theory, we find that there is significant difference between groups with respect to disclosure and performance. The results of quartile analysis by sales, capitalization, and Tobin's Q are relevant to understand the influence that the ESG score has on financial performance. ESG influences on Tobin's Q are greatest for large firms as measured by sales, as opposed to the ESG affects on Tobin's Q and return on asset for smallest firms as measured by market capitalization.     

Corporate social responsibility in china: an analysis of domestic and foreign retailers' sustainability dimensions

In the past decade, a sizeable body of literature has built up on the concept and characteristics of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Western countries, where it has also been referred to as sustainability. More recently, attention has grown for CSR in emerging countries. Remarkably, China has hardly been studied so far. This paper aims to help fill this gap by considering, against this background, the CSR notion in China, through an exploration of a small sample of large retailers in China, both Chinese and non‐Chinese companies. The analysis of CSR/sustainability dimensions, as communicated by these large retailers in both the Chinese and the English language, shows substantial differences between the Chinese and international contexts. Interestingly, the largest divergence can be found for international retailers between their Chinese and corporate attention for CSR (so home versus host settings), most notably in the case of Carrefour, and to a lesser extent Wal‐Mart. In the Chinese context, there are differences between the Chinese and international retailers as well (so domestic versus foreign firms), with the former reporting more on economic dimensions, including philanthropy, and the latter more on product responsibility – contentious labour issues and the environment receive relatively limited attention in both groups in China. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for research and practice. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Corporate sustainability and financial performance: Collective reputation as moderator of the relationship between environmental performance and firm market value

Markets value superior corporate sustainability performance in part because investors use a firm's environmental performance as a signal of desirable but difficult-to-observe attributes, such as the firm's integrity capacity. Yet a signaling conflict can arise when a firm belongs to an organizational form that has a collective reputation for being unethical. In such circumstances, the firm's environmental performance may no longer credibly signal its underlying integrity capacity, leading markets to adjust downward the value they would otherwise place on the firm's environmental performance. Using longitudinal data on South Korean firms, we find that improvements in firm environmental performance lead to smaller increases in market values for firms belonging to a poorly reputed organizational form. However, firms can partially recover lost value by adopting firm features that reduce the signaling conflict, thereby restoring the notion of corporate sustainability performance driving firm market values.     

基于多层面的企业社会责任行动实施动因的研究

企业是一个多层面系统，不同的因素会对其行为产生不同的影响，认识这些因素对于理解企业行动原因有一定帮助。基于此，文章从宏观环境、企业组织和管理者三个层面上分析了影响企业社会责任行动的因素。认为在这些影响因素共同作用下，企业开展社会责任行动存在不同的动因，并表现出不同的行动类型，这将有助于更好地理解该行动的实际意义。     

Strategic stakeholder management,environmental corporate social responsibility engagement,and financial performance of stigmatized firms derived from Chinese special environmental policy

We draw upon the stigma literature and strategic stakeholder management model to develop a framework capable of explaining the link between environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) engagement and financial performance of stigmatized firms, taking stakeholder‐oriented governance and density of local stigmatized firms into consideration. Using a uniquely compiled dataset of Chinese firms specifically monitored by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, we conducted propensity score matching analysis to estimate the impact of stigma on corporate financial performance and corporate environmental responsibility. The result shows that the financial performance of stigmatized firms is negatively affected by the stigma label, spurring them to engage in more ECSR than their peers to improve their legitimacy. Though ECSR engagement of stigmatized firms is found to be negatively associated with their financial performance in current study. Our results also confirm that (a) the financial performance of stigmatized firms is positively affected by two proxies for corporate stakeholder‐oriented governance (i.e., institutional ownership and corporate transparency) and negatively affected by the density of local stigmatized firms; (b) corporate stakeholder‐oriented governance compensates for the negative effect of ECSR engagement; (c) high intensity of local stigmatized firms provides focal firms with an opportunity to improve their financial performance through ECSR engagement; and (d) the positive effects of corporate stakeholder‐oriented governance are diminished by the density of local stigmatized firms.     

The relationships among corporate social responsibility,corporate image and economic performance of high-tech industries in Taiwan

The economic development of high-tech industries in Taiwan focuses on IC design, opt electrics, semiconductors, computer science and telecommunication. It is necessary for business to understand the relations and significance of the economic performance to take the responsibility and keep a positive corporate image, thus they can earn more admiration and trust from customers. How do they take the social responsibility to improve their corporate image and create the economic performance, and finally reach the top one of the whole world? This study discusses the subject concerning the continuing development of business and relevant issues stated above. We found that 68.1% of high-tech industries in Taiwan are in accordance with business ethics and norms of conduct. Businesses take their responsibility practically by participating in public welfare activities. The more responsibilities they fulfill; the better image they have. High-tech industries should target the social responsibility as their first goal and secondly improve their corporate image to increase the economic performance.     

The impact of employee perceptions of organizational corporate social responsibility practices on job performance and organizational citizenship behavior: evidence from the Chinese private sector

This paper examines the impact of employee perceptions of organizational corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on their job performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Hierarchical regression analysis on two-wave data from 184 supervisor/subordinate dyads from three organizations located in Zhejiang Province, South-East China, revealed that employee perceptions of CSR toward social and non-social stakeholders strongly influenced their OCB. However, employee perceptions of CSR toward employees, customers and government influenced neither their job performance nor OCB.     

The contribution of corporate social responsibility to organizational commitment

This study investigates the relationship between organizational commitment and employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within a model that draws on social identity theory. Specifically, we examine the impact of three aspects of socially responsible behaviour on organizational commitment: employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility in the community, procedural justice in the organization and the provision of employee training. The relationship between organizational commitment and each aspect of CSR is investigated within a model that distinguishes between genders and includes a set of control variables that is drawn from the commitment literature (Meyer et al., 2002 Meyer, J.P., Stanley, D.J., Herscovitch, L. and Topolnytsky, L. 2002. Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment to the Organization: A Meta-Analysis of Antecedents, Correlates, and Consequences. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 61: 20–52. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The analysis is based on a sample of 4,712 employees drawn from a financial services company. The results emphasize the importance of gender variation and suggest both that external CSR is positively related to organizational commitment and that the contribution of CSR to organizational commitment is at least as great as job satisfaction.     

Factors of internal corporate social responsibility and the effect on organizational commitment

Internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an essential part of organizations' social responsibility. Yet, to date, CSR's internal dimension has been widely neglected in the literature. This paper empirically explores the concept of internal CSR and its relationship to employees' affective and normative organizational commitment. For conceptualizing internal CSR, seven factors are theoretically derived based on social exchange theory. The research model is initially tested through a pre-test consisting of 386 respondents from a German company active in the renewable energy sector. The main survey is carried out in an international pharmaceutical company, resulting in 2081 employee responses. The results reveal that the relevant factors constituting internal CSR are present and that the latter has a strong effect on employees' affective organizational commitment and a comparatively low effect on normative organizational commitment. Furthermore, a mediating role of affective on normative organizational commitment is detected.     

Corporate Carbon and Financial Performance: The Role of Emission Reductions

This article uses econometric techniques to examine the effect of corporate carbon performance on corporate financial performance. I extend the existing literature in this research field by differentiating between two measurement perspectives: carbon performance expressed as annually reported carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission equivalents and improvements in carbon performance over time. Thereby, the article re‐addresses the research question ‘when and how does it pay to be green?’ in the context of carbon emissions and climate change mitigation. Using a nonlinear modeling technique, the findings indicate that it pays to be green for companies with superior carbon performance but not for companies with inferior carbon performance. The results also show that carbon emission mitigation is linearly and significantly positive related to return on sales (ROS) but negatively related to Tobin's q . These contradictory findings help us to understand why – in spite of growing regulatory pressure – companies have been slow to respond with effective action to tackle climate change beyond marginal efficiency improvements that correspond to ‘low‐hanging fruits’. The empirical analysis is based on an unbalanced sample of 7625 firm‐year observations covering carbon emission data (Scope 1 and Scope 2) for 1640 international firms from 2003 to 2015. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Environmental performance,sustainability, governance and financial performance: Evidence from heavily polluting industries in China

This study seeks to contribute to the existing business strategy and the environment literature by examining the effect of governance structures on Chinese firms' environmental performance, and consequently ascertain the extent to which the financial performance–environmental performance nexus is moderated by governance mechanisms. Using a sample of Chinese companies from heavily polluting industries over a 5-year period, our baseline findings suggest that, on average, board size and governing board meetings are positively associated with Chinese firms' environmental performance, whilst board independence and gender diversity have positive, but insignificant association with firms' environmental performance. Our evidence suggests further that the examined internal governance mechanisms have a mixed moderating effect on the link between financial performance and environmental performance. Our findings have important implications for company executives, environmental activists, policy-makers, and regulators. Our results support insights drawn from agency, resource dependence, stakeholder, and legitimacy theories.     

The impact of financial performance on environmental policy: does firm life cycle matter?

Existing literature has provided inconclusive evidence regarding the impact of financial performance on firm policy relating to environmental issues. In this paper, we propose that the influence of corporate financial performance on corporate environmental policy is unlikely to be monotonic but, rather, will vary with firm life cycle. We test this hypothesis by the application of static and dynamic techniques on panel data from UK companies. The results provide support for our hypotheses that financial performance has the strongest impact on environmental policy in the maturity stage of the firm life cycle and the weakest impact in the rapid growth stage. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Relationship between perceptions of corporate social responsibility and organizational cynicism: the role of employee volunteering

This study explores the role of positive corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions of employees in reducing cynicism toward the organization. As employee involvement in CSR activities through volunteering could influence the perceptions of CSR among employees, the moderating impact of employee volunteering on the relationship between CSR perceptions and cynicism is also tested. Considering that managers and non-managers can have different perceptions of CSR and organizational realities, the relationship between CSR and organizational cynicism is compared among managerial and non-managerial staff working in large organizations. The analysis of 348 questionnaires collected from 191 managers and 157 non-managers showed that positive perceptions of CSR were negatively correlated with organizational cynicism for both managers and non-managers, with significantly stronger negative correlations among managers. Employee volunteering did not significantly moderate the relationship between CSR and organizational cynicism in both groups. The implications of these results on human resource management theory and practice are discussed.