IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/rvmgts/v16y2022i3d10.1007_s11846-021-00472-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate social responsibility as a signaling technology

Author

Listed:
  • Mircea Epure

    (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona GSE
    UPF Barcelona School of Management)

Abstract

This study proposes a production framework in which capital, labor, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) generate sales. Estimating a stochastic frontier on an international sample of large manufacturing firms reveals that CSR has asymmetric effects on efficiency. In a matched sample, the processes of high as compared to low CSR firms are affected less by a crisis shock. This can be largely attributed to the role of CSR as an insurance signal of processes sustainability, especially in market-based as compared to network-oriented contexts. Finally, results show that higher CSR helps firms to mitigate a crisis shock on real effects such as profitability and sales growth; this is mostly because these firms have a higher ability to adjust their operating margins and exhibit lower risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Mircea Epure, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility as a signaling technology," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 907-930, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:rvmgts:v:16:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11846-021-00472-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11846-021-00472-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11846-021-00472-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11846-021-00472-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sol Kim & Geul Lee & Hyoung‐Goo Kang, 2021. "Risk management and corporate social responsibility," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(1), pages 202-230, January.
    2. Klein, Peter G. & Mahoney, Joseph T. & McGahan, Anita M. & Pitelis, Christos N., 2012. "Who Is in Charge? A Property Rights Perspective on Stakeholder Governance," Working Papers 12-0102, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    3. Michael Spence, 2002. "Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 434-459, June.
    4. Ioannis Ioannou & George Serafeim, 2012. "What drives corporate social performance? The role of nation-level institutions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 43(9), pages 834-864, December.
    5. Ronald Shadbegian & Wayne Gray, 2006. "Assessing multi-dimensional performance: environmental and economic outcomes," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 213-234, December.
    6. Lys, Thomas & Naughton, James P. & Wang, Clare, 2015. "Signaling through corporate accountability reporting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 56-72.
    7. Oliver E. Williamson, 2000. "The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(3), pages 595-613, September.
    8. Thomas P. Triebs & Subal C. Kumbhakar, 2018. "Management in production: from unobserved to observed," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 111-121, June.
    9. Caroline Flammer, 2015. "Does Corporate Social Responsibility Lead to Superior Financial Performance? A Regression Discontinuity Approach," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(11), pages 2549-2568, November.
    10. Yung-Ming Shiu & Shou-Lin Yang, 2017. "Does engagement in corporate social responsibility provide strategic insurance-like effects?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 455-470, February.
    11. Bert Balk, 2003. "The Residual: On Monitoring and Benchmarking Firms, Industries, and Economies with Respect to Productivity," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 5-47, July.
    12. Ormazabal, Gaizka, 2018. "The Role of Stakeholders in Corporate Governance: A View from Accounting Research," CEPR Discussion Papers 12775, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Hart, Oliver & Zingales, Luigi, 2017. "Companies Should Maximize Shareholder Welfare Not Market Value," Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting, now publishers, vol. 2(2), pages 247-275, November.
    14. Kumar, Surender, 2006. "Environmentally sensitive productivity growth: A global analysis using Malmquist-Luenberger index," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 280-293, February.
    15. Diego Prior & Jordi Surroca & Josep A. Tribó, 2008. "Are Socially Responsible Managers Really Ethical? Exploring the Relationship Between Earnings Management and Corporate Social Responsibility," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 160-177, May.
    16. Robert G. Eccles & Ioannis Ioannou & George Serafeim, 2014. "The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Processes and Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(11), pages 2835-2857, November.
    17. Karl V. Lins & Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2017. "Social Capital, Trust, and Firm Performance: The Value of Corporate Social Responsibility during the Financial Crisis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1785-1824, August.
    18. Piet Eichholtz & Nils Kok & John M. Quigley, 2010. "Doing Well by Doing Good? Green Office Buildings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2492-2509, December.
    19. Michael C. Jensen, 2010. "Value Maximization, Stakeholder Theory, and the Corporate Objective Function," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 22(1), pages 32-42, January.
    20. Hart, Oliver D. & Zingales, Luigi, 2017. "Companies Should Maximize Shareholder Welfare Not Market Value," Working Papers 267, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    21. Leonardo Becchetti & Giovanni Trovato, 2011. "Corporate social responsibility and firm efficiency: a latent class stochastic frontier analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 231-246, December.
    22. Mircea Epure, 2016. "Benchmarking for routines and organizational knowledge: a managerial accounting approach with performance feedback," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 87-107, August.
    23. Duchin, Ran & Ozbas, Oguzhan & Sensoy, Berk A., 2010. "Costly external finance, corporate investment, and the subprime mortgage credit crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 418-435, September.
    24. Mónica LópezPuertas-Lamy & Kurt Desender & Mircea Epure, 2017. "Corporate social responsibility and the assessment by auditors of the risk of material misstatement," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(9-10), pages 1276-1314, October.
    25. Kumbhakar,Subal C. & Lovell,C. A. Knox, 2003. "Stochastic Frontier Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521666633.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Encarna Guillamon-Saorin & Magdalena Kapelko & Spiro E. Stefanou, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Operational Inefficiency: A Dynamic Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-26, July.
    2. Alice Monti & Pierpaolo Pattitoni & Barbara Petracci & Otto Randl, 2022. "Does corporate social responsibility impact equity risk? International evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 825-855, October.
    3. Michele Fioretti, 2022. "Caring or Pretending to Care? Social Impact, Firms' Objectives, and Welfare (former title: Social Responsibility and Firm's Objectives)," SciencePo Working papers hal-03393065, HAL.
    4. Anagnostopoulou, Seraina C. & Tsekrekos, Andrianos E. & Voulgaris, Georgios, 2021. "Accounting conservatism and corporate social responsibility," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4).
    5. Hans B. Christensen & Luzi Hail & Christian Leuz, 2021. "Mandatory CSR and sustainability reporting: economic analysis and literature review," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1176-1248, September.
    6. Peng, Daoju & Colak, Gonul & Shen, Jianfu, 2023. "Lean against the wind: The effect of policy uncertainty on a firm's corporate social responsibility strategy," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Claire Economidou & Dimitrios Gounopoulos & Dimitrios Konstantios & Emmanuel Tsiritakis, 2023. "Is sustainability rating material to the market?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 52(1), pages 127-179, March.
    8. Homroy, Swarnodeep, 2023. "GHG emissions and firm performance: The role of CEO gender socialization," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    9. Liu, Xianda & Hou, Wenxuan & Main, Brian G.M., 2022. "Anti-market sentiment and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from anti-Jewish pogroms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    10. Ho, Ly & Bai, Min & Lu, Yue & Qin, Yafeng, 2021. "The effect of corporate sustainability performance on leverage adjustments," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(5).
    11. Thomas J. Chemmanur & Dimitrios Gounopoulos & Panagiotis Koutroumpis & Yu Zhang, 2022. "CSR and Firm Survival: Evidence from the Climate and Pandemic Crises," Working Papers 935, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    12. Yanbing Wang & Michael S. Delgado & Jin Xu, 2023. "When and where does it pay to be green? – A look into socially responsible investing and the cost of equity capital," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-23, December.
    13. Cai, Ye & Pan, Carrie H. & Statman, Meir, 2016. "Why do countries matter so much in corporate social performance?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 591-609.
    14. Birgit Meyer & Andreas Reinstaller, 2022. "Doing Well by Doing Good. Verantwortungsvolles Unternehmertum als Wettbewerbsvorteil österreichischer Unternehmen," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 69619, Juni.
    15. Asif Saeed & Ammar Ali Gull & Asad Ali Rind & Muhammad Shujaat Mubarik & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2022. "Do socially responsible firms demand high‐quality audits? An international evidence," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 2235-2255, April.
    16. Zhang, Yanlei & García Lara, Juan Manuel & Tribó, Josep A., 2020. "Unpacking the black box of trade credit to socially responsible customers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    17. Gao, Feng & Li, Yubin & Wang, Xinjie & Zhong, Zhaodong (Ken), 2021. "Corporate social responsibility and the term structure of CDS spreads," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    18. Huang, Chenchen & Luo, Di & Mukherjee, Soumyatanu & Mishra, Tapas, 2022. "To Acquire or to Ally? Managing Partners’ Environmental Risk in International Expansion," MPRA Paper 117591, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 07 Jan 2023.
    19. Amrou Awaysheh & Randall A. Heron & Tod Perry & Jared I. Wilson, 2020. "On the relation between corporate social responsibility and financial performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(6), pages 965-987, June.
    20. Jia, Jing & Li, Zhongtian, 2022. "Opioid abuse and corporate social responsibility," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate social responsibility; Efficiency; Crisis; Profitability; Signaling;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M1 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:rvmgts:v:16:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11846-021-00472-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.