Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect the Performance of Firms?

Over the last two decades in OECD countries increasingly more firms are certifying as Socially Responsible (CSR is the acronym for Corporate Social Responsibility). This kind of certification is assigned by private companies that guarantee that a certain firm’s behaviour is environmentally and sociologically correct. Some papers (including Preston and O’Bannon, 1997; Waddock and Graves, 1997; McWilliams and Sieger, 2001; Ullman, 1985) tried to establish if there exists a link between Social Responsibility certification and the performance of firms. Their results were ambiguous and did not show any common connection. This ambiguity depends mainly on the static nature of their analyses and on the problem of whether performance is affected more by certification costs or by increasing sales due to an effect on reputation. Our work would like to discover whether certain performance indicators are affected by a firm’s social responsible behaviour and their certifications by looking at panel data. The novelty of our analysis is due to its dynamic aspect and from a CSR index that intersects two of the three main international indices (Domini 400 Social Index, Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, FTSE4Good Index), to be objective and obtain a representative sample. The main results seem to support the idea that CSR firms which are more virtuous, have better long run performance. They have some initial costs but obtain higher sales and profits due to several causes reputation effect, a reduction of long run costs and increased social responsible demand.Corporate Social Responsibility, Growth

Measure the Performance with the Market Value Added: Evidence from CSR Companies

An increasing number of firms in OECD countries are obtaining certification as Socially Responsible. Literature is sensitive in testing whether there is a relation between firm performance and Social Responsibility certification. In order to overcome problems related to the multiplicity of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) definitions and certifications, our work implements a CSR index based on the intersection between two of the three main international indices (Domini 400 Social Index, Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and FTSE4Good Index). By using this database in a panel framework, our work shows that among Corporate Performance Measures (CPF), Market Value Added (MVA) is affected by a firm’s social responsible behaviour and certification. The results support the idea that CSR firms have better long-run performance. Thanks to the reputation effect, they achieve higher sales volumes and profits and a reduction in long-run costs: these effects compensate the costs due to the certification

La CSR paga?

Negli ultimi due decenni, nei paesi Ocse un numero crescente di imprese sono state certificate come socialmente responsabili (CSR è l'acronimo di Corporate Social Responsibility). Questo tipo di certificazione è assegnato da società private che garantiscono che il comportamento di una ditta sia corretto da un punto di vista ambientale e sociale. La letteratura economica sta studiando i principali fattori di spinta verso la certificazione e, in particolare, si sta cercando di verificare se vi è un collegamento tra la certificazione di responsabilità sociale e la performance delle imprese. I risultati sono ambigui e sembrano sostenere l'idea che le imprese CSR siano più virtuose, con una migliore performance nel lungo periodo: esse sostengono parte dei costi iniziali, ma ottengo un aumento delle vendite e dei profitti dovuto a diverse cause: un effetto reputazione, una riduzione dei costi di investimento di lungo periodo, aumentando così la domanda di divenire socialmente responsabili

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect the Performance of Firms?

Over the last two decades in OECD countries increasingly more firms are certifying as Socially Responsible (CSR is the acronym for Corporate Social Responsibility). This kind of certification is assigned by private companies that guarantee that a certain firm’s behaviour is environmentally and sociologically correct. Some papers (including Preston and O’Bannon, 1997; Waddock and Graves, 1997; McWilliams and Sieger, 2001; Ullman, 1985) tried to establish if there exists a link between Social Responsibility certification and the performance of firms. Their results were ambiguous and did not show any common connection. This ambiguity depends mainly on the static nature of their analyses and on the problem of whether performance is affected more by certification costs or by increasing sales due to an effect on reputation. Our work would like to discover whether certain performance indicators are affected by a firm’s social responsible behaviour and their certifications by looking at panel data. The novelty of our analysis is due to its dynamic aspect and from a CSR index that intersects two of the three main international indices (Domini 400 Social Index, Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, FTSE4Good Index), to be objective and obtain a representative sample. The main results seem to support the idea that CSR firms which are more virtuous, have better long run performance. They have some initial costs but obtain higher sales and profits due to several causes reputation effect, a reduction of long run costs and increased social responsible demand

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Pay?

Our work would like to discover whether certain performance indicators are affected by a firm’s social responsible behaviour and their certifications by looking at panel data. The novelty of our analysis is due to its dynamic aspect and from a CSR index that intersects two of the three main international indices (Domini 400 Social Index, Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, FTSE4Good Index), to be objective and obtain a representative sample. The main results seem to support the idea that CSR firms which are more virtuous, have better long run performance. They have some initial costs but obtain higher sales and profits due to several causes reputation effect, a reduction of long run costs and increased social responsible demand

Innovazione e transizione università-lavoro: l'esperienza del progetto PIL

Il seminario fa parte di un ciclo di eventi di informazione e approfondimento sui temi dell'innovazione e della conoscenza, organizzati nell'ambito del programma Spinner 2013

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect Firms' Performance?

In the last two decades in the OECD countries there have been a raising development of firms certified as Social Responsible (CSR is the acronym of Corporate Social Responsibility). This kind of certification is assigned by private companies that guarantee that the behaviour of a certain firms environmentally and sociologically correct. Some papers (among other Preston and O'Bannon, 1997; Waddock and Graves, 1997; McWilliams and Sieger, 2001; Ullman, 1985) tried to verify if there exists a link between Social Responsibility certification and firms' performance. Their results are ambiguous and do not show a common path. This ambiguity depends mainly on the static nature of their analyses and on problem if performance is affected more by certification costs or by increasing sales due to a reputation effect. Our work would like to verify, after a review of literature, by using panel data, if some performance indicators can be affected by the firms' social responsible behaviour and their certifications. The novelty of our analysis comes from its dynamic aspect and from the building of a CSR index that intersects two of the three main international indices (Domini 400 Social Index, Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, FTSE4Good Index), in order to be objective and to have a representative sample. The main results seem to support the idea that the CSR firms are the more virtuous, having better performances in the long run: they bear some initial costs but obtain higher sales and profits due to several causes: reputation effect, a reduction of long rin costs, increasing social responsible demand.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Firms’ Performance: A Stratigraphical Analysis

Over the last two decades in OECD countries an increasing number of firms are obtaining certification as Socially Responsible. Several studies (including Preston and O’Bannon, 1997; Waddock and Graves, 1997; McWilliams and Sieger, 2001; Ullman, 1985) have sought to test whether there is a relation between Social Responsibility certification and the firms’ performance. Our work builds a CSR index that intersects two of the three main international indices (Domini 400 Social Index, Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, FTSE4Good Index), in order to overcome some problems related to the multiplicity of CSR definitions and certifications. By using this database, our work carries out a stratigraphical analysis in order to verify whether some variables are statistically different in the CSR group with respect to the benchmark case (non-CSR). The main results show that there are several interesting differences in some economic indicators between CSR and non-CSR firms and between USA and EU, and among different industrial sectors

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect the Performance of Firms?

Over the last two decades in OECD countries an increasing number of firms are obtaining certification as Socially Responsible (CSR is the acronym for Corporate Social Responsibility). Several studies (including Preston and O’Bannon, 1997; Waddock and Graves, 1997; McWilliams and Sieger, 2001; Ullman, 1985) have sought to test whether there is a relation between Social Responsibility certification and firm performance. Our work builds a CSR index that intersects two of the three main international indices (Domini 400 Social Index, Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, FTSE4Good Index), in order to overcome some problems related to the multiplicity of CSR definitions and certifications. By using this database in a panel framework, our work shows that some performance indicators are affected by a firm’s social responsible behaviour and certifications. The main results seem to support the idea that CSR firms, which are more virtuous, have better long-run performance: even if they have initial costs due to the certification, they achieve higher sales volumes and profits, thanks to the reputation effect, a reduction in long-run costs and increased social responsible demand