CSR, strategy and financial performance

Abstract

Prior studies report mixed findings on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance. This paper argues that the relationship between CSR and corporate financial performance also depends on whether firms incorporate their strategic orientations (i.e., prospector vs. defender) into CSR activities. At the same time, divide CSR into “public CSR” and “internal CSR” instead of focusing on aggregate CSR as usual. This article selects the data of 728 manufacturing listed companies in China from 2010 to 2014, exploring the relationship between CSR and corporate financial performance with corporate strategy. Our results show that prospectors engaging in public CSR can get better performance than defenders. However, defenders that invest in internal CSR perform better than prospectors.