The impact of corporate social responsibility on firms’ financial performance, evidence from the food and beverage industry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firms’ financial performance (FP) in the food and beverage (F&B) sector. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed a conceptual model that hypothesizes a positive effect of CSR gove...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British food journal (1966) 2020-01, Vol.122 (1), p.1-13
Main Authors: Nirino, Niccolò, Miglietta, Nicola, Salvi, Antonio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beverage industry
Business ethics
Corporate responsibility
Environmental governance
Ethics
Financial performance
Food
Food industry
Food processing industry
Hypotheses
Least squares method
Literature reviews
Regression analysis
Reputations
Sex discrimination
Social responsibility
Stakeholders
Stockholders
Sustainability
Sustainable development
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Summary:Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on firms’ financial performance (FP) in the food and beverage (F&B) sector. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed a conceptual model that hypothesizes a positive effect of CSR governance on CSR outcomes (environmental and social) and these on firm’s FP. Gathering data from 190 F&B companies, the authors empirically tested the validity of the model through an ordinary least squares regression analysis. Findings The findings highlight the positive impact of CSR governance on environmental and social outcomes, showing real societal concerns among companies’ stakeholders in the F&B industry. Studies on the effect of CSR outcomes on FP have shown mixed results. On one side, the social outcomes positively impact a firm’s performance; on the other side, environmental outcomes show insignificant or non-positive effects depending on different measurements of FP. Originality/value Despite the mixed set of results between CSR and a firm’s performance in the literature, this research provides a new framework in which the impact of CSR on FP is analysed through the effectiveness of CSR governance on CSR outcomes (social and environmental). Moreover, this study contributes to the CSR literature understanding the impact of both environment and social concerns by companies on firm’s FP in F&B context.
ISSN:0007-070X
1758-4108
DOI:10.1108/BFJ-07-2019-0503