How historical and social aspirations reshape the relationship between corporate financial performance and corporate social responsibility

Saridakis, Charalampos, Angelidou, Sofia ORCID: 0000-0001-9932-2859 and Woodside, Arch G (2023) How historical and social aspirations reshape the relationship between corporate financial performance and corporate social responsibility. JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 157. p. 113553.

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Abstract

Integrating the behavioral theory of the firm into the discussion on why firms behave in socially responsible ways, the study here develops and empirically tests hypotheses articulating when and how past corporate financial performance (CFP) might lead to more or less engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Rather than treating historical and social aspirations as comparable performance benchmarks that yield similar behavioral responses, as most prior studies do, these two modes of performance comparison may induce signals that executives interpret differently, and therefore may lead to conflicting firm responses towards CSR initiatives. Using panel data pertaining to a large sample of U.S. firms, the study finds that historical and social performance comparisons have differential effects on CSR engagement. The findings describe how different interpretations of achievement influence firm's engagement in secondary activities concerning environmental and social issues—a topic that has received very little attention in prior empirical research.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Corporate social responsibility, Historical aspirations, Performance benchmarks, Social aspirations
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	13 Dec 2022 16:54
Last Modified:	15 Feb 2023 12:12
DOI:	10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113553
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3166636