CSR and Financial Performance: The Case of Polish Small and Medium Manufacturers

Abstract

The paper explores the hypothesized link between involvement in social responsibility and financial performance. In particular, it looks at this relationship among Polish small and medium manufacturing companies that operate in food, beverage and cosmetics industries. The statistical analysis involves developing and testing structural model on the basis of data from a survey of 187 managers supplemented by validated financial metrics from an external database. The outcomes suggests the existence of a weak but statistically significant positive correlation between the CSR involvement construct and sales profit margin (β=0.2). However, CSR seems to have no discernible direct effect on ROA. The study, as the first project of this kind in Poland, adds to the sparse body of literature on financial outcomes of CSR in small and medium enterprises from emerging economies. Another distinguishing feature of this research is its methodological approach which compares favorably to many previous studies in terms of robustness.