The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility Performance on Financial Distress over the Life Cycle Using the Directional Distance Function

Rising inflation in recent years has caused financial distress and many problems for companies. Most of these problems are affected by life cycle stages. One way out of these problems is to increase corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Therefore, our aim in this study is to investigate the effect of CSR performance on financial distress over the life cycle of the company for a period of 10 years. Data collection was done through the website of the Tehran Stock Exchange and related software for a sample of 112 companies during the period 2009 to 2019. The mathematical method (directional distance function) is used to evaluate the CSR performance, and the models of Berger et al., Almida, Campello, and Altman are used to measure financial distress. The research hypotheses are tested using panel data and fixed effects by multivariate regression statistical method. The results show that CSR performance alone does not affect financial distress. The combination of CSR and life cycle in the growth and maturity phases has a significant and negative effect on financial distress. The CSR performance and life cycle together reduce financial distress. The combination of CSR performance and life cycle in the recession phase has a positive and significant effect on financial distress and in the fall phase, does not affect it. Given that companies compete more in the phase of growth and maturity than other phases of the life cycle, they also pay more attention to CSR. Therefore, according to these results, it can be concluded that the life cycle of the company and the CSR performance together, reduce financial distress.