Does CSR practice pay off in East Asian firms? A meta-analytic investigation

Abstract

Academics and practitioners have long wondered whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice is beneficial for Asian firms. To better understand the relationships between CSR and business performance, we use meta-analytical techniques based on 31,773 East Asian firms reported in 28 empirical studies to provide cumulative evidence for the value of CSR. Meta-analytic results indicate a general positive association between CSR and business performance. We find that environmental CSR has a stronger impact than social CSR on business performance, and that CSR practice has a stronger positive effect on operational performance than on financial performance. Further meta-analytic evidence indicates that several moderating issues explain significant variances in the effect size across studies, including economic development stage (developed vs. developing), firm size (SMEs vs. non-SMEs), organizational form (public vs. private), and measurement methods (archival data vs. self-report). Moreover, we find that CSR importance in East Asia has not varied over the past 15 years. We conclude with theoretical contributions and practical implications.

Sustainability and financial performance of small and medium sized enterprises: A bibliometric and systematic literature review

“…This cluster is populated by papers adopting several methodological approaches. Some of them are defined as theoretical/predictive papers, such as Eltantawy, Fox, and Giunipero (), Herrera Madueno et al (), Hou, Liu, Fan, and Wei (), Stoian and Gilman (). The most cited among these (Eltantawy et al, ) analyses the impact of supply management ethical responsibility (SMER) on a firm's reputation and performance.…”

“…This study, therefore, supports the social impact hypothesis and offers evidence about some intangibles such as the relational capacity that mediate the causal effect between CSR and competitive performance.This cluster is populated by papers adopting several methodological approaches. Some of them are defined as theoretical/predictive papers, such as Eltantawy, Fox, and Giunipero (2009), Herrera Madueno et al (2016),Hou, Liu, Fan, and Wei (2016),Stoian and Gilman (2017). The most cited among these(Eltantawy et al, 2009) analyses the impact of supply management ethical responsibility (SMER) on a firm's reputation and performance.…”

Behind film performance in China’s changing institutional context: The impact of signals

“…Thus signaling theory is particularly relevant for examining film performance. However, despite the fact that the theory has been applied in a wide array of research contexts (e.g., Connelly et al, 2011;Hou, Liu, Fan, & Wei, 2016;Wu, Li, & Li, 2013) and various signal variables have been examined in film industry research, its explicit application to the film industry literature remains limited, exceptions including Akdeniz and Talay (2013), Basuroy, Desai, and Talukdar (2006), and Kim and Jensen (2014). At the core of signaling theory are signals that contain positive and/or negative information which is conveyed to the receivers: signals must be credible to attract a receiver's attention and receivers stand to gain from making decisions based on the information contained in credible signals.…”

Images of Stakeholder Groups Based on Their Environmental Sustainability Linked CSR Projects: A Meta-Analytic Review of Korean Sport Literature

“…This TOP program has helped the IOC to secure financial stability and to build cooperative relationship with stakeholder groups for the stability of the Olympic movement. Thus, relevant stakeholders in the global sports industry have utilized such sports events to build their brand identity to achieve competitive market advantage [5][6][7]. That is, such mega-sports events as the IOC's Olympics are the most widely accepted sources of media exposure via global media channels.…”

“…In recent years, CSR activities based on the concept of environmental sustainability have played an integral role in the marketing programs of associated stakeholders of the 2012 London Summer Olympics. These groups in the global sport industry are committed to conceptualizing and implementing CSR projects for establishing people-nature linkages with "positive environmental and social sustainability" [6,12]. In other words, being committed to CSR has been a way of increasing public recognition for the multiple facets of sustainability.…”