Corporate social responsibility and financial constraints: Evidence from Korean firms

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial constraints by using a sample 1,584 firm-years of Korea during 2002-2011. We measure corporate social responsibility by both an equal-weighted CSR index and a stakeholder-weighted CSR index suggested by Akpinar et al.(2008) and Choi et al.(2010). Corporate financial constraints are measured by KZ index suggested by Kaplan and Zingales(1997). We find a negative and significant relationship between corporate financial constraints and the stakeholder-weighted CSR index, but not the equal-weighted CSR index. This finding implies that only CSR strategies with which stakeholders are prioritized can provide a positive impact upon the firm's ability to access finance in capital market.