Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Performance: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility is an important force to increase the total social welfare and promote the sustainable development of corporates. However, there have been serious differences in the academic research on the impact of corporate social responsibility on corporate performance. Based on the previous research on corporate social responsibility and corporate performance, this study further refines the variable dimension and deeply analyzes the relationship and mechanism between them. Providing a methodologically and systematically rigorous review than prior efforts, this study conducts a Meta-analysis of 42 studies yielding a total sample size of 92863 observations. The results suggest that corporate social responsibility has a significant positive effect on corporate economic & financial performance, especially on accounting-based performance. The findings also indicate that year of publication, sample country and sample industry have moderating effect on the mean effect. These findings enrich the study of CSR and organization sustainability.