اثرگذاری مسئولیت اجتماعی شرکت ها بر ارزش شرکت Assessing whether corporate social responsibility influence corporate value

I. Introduction Corporate sustainability has become an increasingly significant issue for investors and the ultimate goal for corporations. Since the 1960s, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been recognized as a key issue associated with corporate sustainability. Investors are focusing more attention on how CSR influences the operational performance of corporations. The link between CSR and firm value is of great interest to both academics and practitioners. However, it is still unclear as to whether the shouldering of social responsibility exerts impact on corporate value. At present, existing literature is inconclusive on this matter. Becchetti, Di Giacomo, and Pinnacchio (2008; 2009) agreed with the views of classical economist Friedman (1962), in which bearing social responsibility is considered a shift in company focus to engage in non-profit-maximizing behaviour, and therefore, a negative correlation exists between CSR and financial performance. In contrast, Moneva and Ortas (2008) proposed that a positive relation exists between CSR and financial performance on the grounds that CSR can enhance brand image and enable corporations to gain better reputation in the eyes of consumers; for this reason, higher social performance leads to better financial performance. McWilliams and Siegel (2000) maintained that CSR and R&D expenses can create new products and production innovation for corporations. Thus, as corporations actively fulfil CSR, they also pursue differentiation strategies, and investment in R&D presents a trade-off with advantages. For this reason, they indicated that CSR performance has a neutral impact on corporate value. To sum up, existing studies still have no consistent conclusions regarding the influence of socially responsible behaviour on corporate value. We speculate that this is because previous research investigated a linear relationship between CSR and corporate value. However, if a nonlinear relationship exists between the two, it may lead to results that differ from those presented in the literature. An issue often encountered in research on CSR is the means of quantifying it. Researchers and international organizations have proposed a number of CSR indices. However, there is currently no single measurement standard for CSR. Kinder, Lydenberg, and Domini & Co. Inc. (KLD) were the first to establish CSR assessment criteria in 1990, which they used to screen the constituents of S&P 500 and develop the Domini 400 Index. Later in 2001, the Financial Times and London Stock Exchange (FTSE) created the FTSE 400 GOOD Index.