The CSR: financial performance link: a test of the moderation effect of industry

• Autor(a) principal: Silva, Maria Carlota de Melo Castro
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/21952
• topic: CSR; Financial performance; Profitability; Solvency; Industry; RSO; Desempenho financeiro; Rendibilidade; Solvência; Setor económico

The CSR-Corporate performance link has been studied under the assumption that findings are universally valid. However, such findings have been diverging, which raise motives to adopt a contingency approach. Taking into consideration the contrasting nature of organizations, namely in the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries this research tests the moderation effect of industry on the relationship between CSR and corporate financial performance. Covering 255 listed companies in West-Southern Europe, i.e. Portugal, Spain and France, findings show a direct effect of CSR on ROA and ROE alongside with an interaction effect with industry. Namely, the closer the industry is to tertiary level, the stronger the relation between CSR and financial performance. These findings were mirrored when predicting solvency ratio (asset based) but were not observed for EBITDA. Overall, when studying CSR effects on financial performance, findings show an industrybased contingent approach is called for.