CSRHub for Research Purposes

Use CSRHub for your next research project

Periodically, we are asked if anyone has used CSRHub for research purposes.  Several students have written their thesis or dissertations with our data, listed below. If we have missed yours, or one you know of, please let us know.

Research Papers:

2018 papers

Corporate social responsibility practice of Malaysian public listed government-linked companies: A dimensional analysis
Lim Boon Keong, Suresh Ramakrishnan, Sanil S. Hishan
This paper examines the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of the Malaysian public-listed government-linked companies (GLCs) using a dimensional analysis. Four dimensions of CSR activities, namely community, employees, environment and governance, are investigated to study the latest CSR practice of GLCs in year 2016. Each dimension is divided into three subcategories to further examine the performance of GLCs on a particular CSR area. This is the first paper in Malaysia which uses CSR ratings (obtained from CSRHub database) to proxy for CSR practice. None of the past literature has been found to adopt this approach. The findings show that Malay-sian public-listed GLCs performed better in community, employees and environment dimensions, whilst tend to underperform in governance dimension.

https://searchworks.stanford.edu/articles/edsdoj__edsdoj.94fb841f109c45f5966396efdb8f8d0b

Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Business Success: Case of the Global Tobacco Industry
Marcela Mišura ; University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics, Rijeka, Croatia (PhD student)
This study evaluates the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the financial performance of companies operating within the global tobacco industry. According to the Forbes Global 2000 list, the research covers almost the entire industry, more accurately nine companies whose value is about 99% of the total market capitalization of the industry. Analysis of this research problem covered a five-year period, from 2011 to 2015. To evaluate CSR of the companies involved in research, the CSRHub rating list was used. An aforementioned list gives ratings for the four criteria of CSR: community, employees, environment, and governance. To assess the financial performance of the companies and to obtain representative results, two indicators were used: ROA, as a measure based on the accounting records of the company and Tobin's Q ratio, as a measure of the market success of the company. The research results indicate that there is no statistically significant correlation between the CSR and the financial performance at the tobacco industry level, but statistically significant correlation can be confirmed only selectively at the level of individual companies and individual indicators.
https://hrcak.srce.hr/202644

A Study of Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance - Take Taiwan’s Companies as Examples
Lin, Yu-Yun, National Chiao Tung University
This research intends to verify the hypothesis whether the greater Corporate Social Responsibility a corporate is, the higher financial performance of a corporate would be. In this study, the Corporate Social performance (CSP) scores of Taiwan’s public companies in the CSRHUB database are used to explore the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance. The research constructs two stages regression models to verify the hypothesis. The first stage shows that relationship between the CSP and the financial performance dependent variables is negative-related. The reduce model of first and second stage shows that relationship between the CSP and the financial performance dependent variables is significantly negative-related for companies volunteer for CSR reporting, but not significantly for companies requested for CSR reporting by Financial Supervisory Commission, R.O.C.
http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/6v63w2

The Relationship between Business Foundation and Corporate Social Responsibility
Te-Tzu Kuo, National Donghua University
The meaning of the corporate social responsibility is that while a firm is pursuing its profit, it should contribute to the community and meet the expectations of the community, which is similar to the aim of the establishment of corporate foundations. Therefore, this research examines the association between the corporate foundations and corporate social responsibility. The samples are Taiwanese listed companies from 2010 to 2014. The corporate social responsibility data is from TEJ and CSRHUB database. The results show that firms with foundations are more likely to implement corporate social responsibility. Second, firms with foundations reveal the corporate social responsibility report more voluntarily. Besides, when firms implement corporate social responsibility, we find that firms with corporate foundations have better corporate social responsibility performance than those firms without corporate foundations. Finally, we find that there is no association between corporate foundations and illegal behavior. However, firms with foundations have less illegal events than those firms without corporate foundations when they both have illegal behavior.
http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/tbfcw7

2017 papers

Corporate social responsibility and brand value in luxury
Bravo González, Ramón, University of Glasgow
With a combined annual revenue of approximately $250 billion dollars, the luxury industry is highly significant, from a financial and commercial point of view. Within luxury, an area that is becoming increasingly important due to the visibility of this industry is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). While consumers are still not actively demanding CSR in luxury products and services, and there is evidence that CSR is not a key area of interest for the luxury industry; the luxury industry is becoming the target of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other stakeholders interested in environmental and ethical practices. Thus, it is essential that luxury companies explore CSR implementation, as neglecting to do so, is likely to affect their brands and their brand value. One of the most important assets that luxury firms have is brand value, an intangible asset influenced by consumer and company-led actions. CSR is a company-led action, which depending on how it is managed, can either increase or decrease brand value. It is important to note that to understand the role of CSR within luxury and how it can influence brand value, it is not possible to study CSR in isolation, as this would not fully reveal its importance in the wider context of brand value overall. Thus, CSR needs to be studied alongside other factors affecting brand value. Despite the fact that CSR can influence brand value in luxury, CSR is still overlooked by the industry. Due to the increasing relevance of CSR within luxury, this research explores the role of CSR within luxury and how it, together with other factors, contributes to brand value in luxury. An additional consideration is that despite the importance of brand value in luxury, the industry does not normally measure, manage and leverage brand value. As a result, it is also necessary to examine how brand value is perceived within luxury. To meet these research goals, a mixed methods approach was selected. More specifically, a theoretical framework was built with input from the literature and interviews with key interviewees from the luxury industry. Then, the theoretical framework was tested quantitatively. The quantitative analysis was conducted with a dataset based on consumer panels, and additional secondary data including Bloomberg, CSRHub, Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), Interbrand, and company reports. The results were subject to ‘credibility checks’ with interviewees from the industry. It is noteworthy to highlight that for the statistical analysis, one of the largest datasets with US consumer data was used. Similarly, for the qualitative interviews, representatives from some of the largest luxury companies in the world in terms of brand value, and luxury stakeholders were recruited. The results from this research suggest that despite the importance of brand value within luxury; brand value is not widely understood by the industry and it is not measured, managed or leveraged. This research also suggests that CSR, company size, having controlled distribution, country of origin, marketing and research and development (R&D)/design, energized differentiation, esteem, and relevance; are critical factors to brand value. Consequently, luxury brands need to manage all these determinants to be able to create and preserve brand value. Nevertheless, while all these determinants are important, their importance can vary by brand; depending on brand size, brand category, target market, and whether the brand is heritage or non-heritage. With regard to CSR, an outcome from this research is that CSR is becoming an increasingly important contributor to brand value in luxury. Still, the luxury industry is not fully aware that CSR implementation is consistent with key luxury values such as high-quality and service and luxury’s long-term vision; and that stringent CSR policies and practices constitute a potential strategy to anticipate future regulatory and social constraints. Furthermore, CSR implementation within luxury is generally limited to discrete actions, such as collaboration with the arts, compliance, local production, philanthropy/voluntarism, and use of environmentally friendlier materials. It is crucial that luxury companies incorporate CSR into the DNA of their brands and choose a CSR strategy aligned with their brand vision. Luxury brands may be able to positively change consumer perceptions of CSR and, thus, drive consumer demand. Also, engagement with CSR may result in a competitive advantage to them and in a potential increase in their brand value. Moreover, the results suggest that brand knowledge is overemphasized by the luxury industry, although it does not appear to be essential for brand value in luxury. Additionally, with respect to brand relevance, this research makes a case to consider brand desirability as a potentially more appropriate determinant of brand value within a luxury context.
https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?did=1&uin=uk.bl.ethos.716889

Gender equality and Corporate Social Responsibility in Swedish corporate governance : A gender perspective
Heinonen, Tobias and Clavijo-Retamales, Isaac, Södertörn University, School of Social Sciences, Business Studies.
Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to investigate whether the number and proportion of women on the board affect company CSR performance and diversification. The study also has an exploratory purpose in that the authors describe and explore an own created methodology that can contribute to an alternative operationalization of CSR diversification. Method: The study is based on a positivist and deductive approach. A quantitative strategy is applied for data collection. The study´s population consists of Swedish large cap corporates on the Stockholm Stock Exchange market. A total of 69 corporates are observed. The board's composition with respect to gender is the primary data and obtained from the corporates annual reports of the year 2015. Secondary data consists of the companies CSR-performance and -diversification for the year of 2016 and retrieved from CSRHub's database. Furthermore, a multiple regression analysis is applied to investigate the relationship between the gender and CSR variables, in relation to different control variables. Result: The regression result shows no significant evidence that the CSR-performance/ -diversification and the number and/or proportion of female representation on the boards have a relationship. Furthermore, the result shows that the size of the board has importance with respect to CSR-performance, but not to the diversification, and that there are differences between industries. The result shows that Swedish large cap corporations have greater points on their CSR-score, than the average company on CSRHub. Women represent 33% of the board members. All boards have at least one women director and consist of an average of three women. 43 of the observed corporates have three or more women on their boards. Conclusion: It is difficult to prove a causal and significant relationship between the number and / or proportion of women in the board and the company's CSR-performance and the degree of diversification. The size of the board seems to be more decisive (for the CSR-performance). It is assumed that factors other than those used in the study may have greater impact than the number and proportion of women. The method used to measure CSR-diversification is not complete and needs further development.
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-33081

The Association among Corporate Social Responsibility, Earnings Management and Tax Management in China
Pei-Yi Wu, National Donghua University
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has got attention in the international community recently, and has become a trend in the company's development. There is a considerable literature on CSR. However, CSR is a new concept in China, and the relevant research and implementation is in initial stage. This study examines the relation among CSR, earnings management and tax management in China. The samples are CSR corporations in China during 2011-2014 from CSRHub database, and matched the pair of samples with similar size. The primary empirical findings of this study indicate that there is a significantly positive association between CSR and earnings (tax) management. Moreover, the results also show that there is a significantly positive association between CSR scores and tax management. However, the association between CSR score and earnings management is not significant. My findings indicate that CSR may not be able to restrict the earnings (tax) management of Chinese corporations, opposite, CSR become a tool to cover up their wrongdoings.
http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/kfzth7

2016 papers

The relationship between corporate social responsibility and firm performance: a study of South African listed companies
Mukoki, Paul Shepherd, A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree in Master of Commerce (50% course work) / A growing number of institutional investors that are adopting corporate social responsibility (CSR) philosophy are playing a crucial role in influencing listed companies to adopt and address CSR issues. CSR is defined as “…a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations…” (European Commission, 2010). CSR is now widely accepted as a way of doing business in the contemporary environment. It is evident in companies that are spending large sums of money, time and effort on satisfying various stakeholders’ requirements for responsible behaviour. Despite the growing pressure on companies to become socially responsible, the direct benefits of CSR contribution to firm performance remain questionable. From existing literature the relationship between CSR and firm performance have pointed to mixed results (Gladysek & Chipeta, 2012; Aggarwal, 2013). This study examines the relationship between CSR performance and firm performance using the CSRHub sustainability indexes as proxy for CSR performance. The firm performance measures of firm value (Tobin’s Q) and financial accounting performance (return on assets) were used. Annual data of firms from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) from year 2009 to 2012 was analysed using the Multiple Regression Analysis techniques. The study revealed that significant and positive relationship exists between CSR/environmental performance and firm value of listed South African companies. The study concluded that there is no significant relationship between firm performance and the other components of CSR such as community relations, employment relations, and governance. The relatively small sample size of the listed companies, some missing values on the sample data and the shorter time period on the study are the main limitations acknowledged in this report. In the overall, the study provides important insights for understanding the contribution of CSR and its disaggregated components to firm performance.
http://hdl.handle.net/10539/20190

Corporate Social Responsibility och riskpåverkan : En studie av det sociala ansvarstagandets effekt på risk i Svenska börsbolag
Elman, Beatrice, Södertörn University, School of Social Sciences
This study uses a quantitative method that aims to investigate the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm risk within Swedish public companies. Despite previous research at Anglo-Saxon companies with similar results, authors found cause for further investigation. Authors identified differences in the Swedish context that could affect the earlier found negative relation between CSR and firm risk, thereby legitimizing further examination. The research is built on secondary data collected from Nasdaq, Morningstar, Orbis and the CSRHub database. Through theory of relevance and current research, it develops a hypothesis which states that as CSR increases, firm risk is reduced in accordance with previous research. Testing was done with Pearsons bivariate correlation table and a multivariate regression analysis, controlling for various firm characteristics. The study found no connection between market risk and CSR, but could not determine whether a relationship between CSR and total risk exists within the population, only partly rejecting the hypothesis. The study raises attention as to how the relation between CSR and risk could be different in a context outside the typical Anglo-Saxon population. It could also be used as a base to further research on the cause to the lack of relation between CSR and market risk, in this study’s particular population.
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-30714

2015 papers

The Ethical Pitfalls and Opportunities of Initial Public Offerings
Abbey Stemler, Timothy L. Fort
Initial public offerings (IPOs) have been a focus of qualitative and quantitative research since the 1960s. However, the majority of research emanates from the fields of finance and management, with very little coming from the field of ethics. In this paper, we attempt to fill this gap by answering the question: Does the IPO process change a company’s ethical culture? In order to answer this question we examined S-1 filings made by companies before they went public. We used text-mining techniques to identify words that are uniquely related to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in those filings. We then used linear regression to compare those word counts to data produced by CSRHub. Companies that include words related to CSR tend to score better on various CSR measures. This evidence can support several explanatory theories, such as companies that take the time and effort to discuss CSR concepts in their S-1s make ethics a priority and therefore score higher on CSR ratings. Similarly, companies that had never formally thought about their ethical culture might feel, under the pressure of an IPO, to think about what kind of company the owners and leadership want it to be in the long run. Our study only analyzed companies three years post-IPO and did not control for certain variables. This paper is the first of its kind to discuss and, more importantly, attempt to quantify the impact of the IPO process on a company’s ethical culture. We hope that by understanding how the IPO process influences companies in terms of ethics, companies can more easily develop and maintain ethical cultures pre- and post-IPO.
https://searchworks.stanford.edu/articles/edsrep__edsrep.h.eme.aseizz.s1048.473620150000025003

The Impact of Return and Default Risk on China Corporate Social Responsibility
Ling Peng, Tamkang University
Recently, corporate social responsibility plays an important role, it is consist of employment community, governance, employees and environment, thus, this study examines the effect of return financial performance and risk on corporate social responsibility, providing a new perspective on motivation of corporate social responsibility. We will add central enterprise to discuss what is the main reason of corporate to fulfill corporate social responsibility. Our sample with 69 monthly data about 141 of China corporation corporate social responsibility score from December, 2008 to August, 2014 from CSRHUB. Our finding suggests that central enterprise return, financial performance and risk is positive and significantly relation to corporate social responsibility, and government policy of China emphasis on sustainable society and environment protection.
http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/15959284635289595973

Costs and benefits of reducing financing costs through corporate social responsibility
Bandžak, Richard, University of Economics, Prague
The dissertation thesis investigates the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance (FP) on the sample of 51 Eurozone banks over the period from 2008 to 2014. The investigation is based on a panel data regression analysing the financial data from Bankscope and the social performance data from CSRHub. Return on assets and the ratio of non-performing loans to total loans represent the measures of financial performance and are used as dependent variables. The results of this model have shown a positive and statistically significant CSR-FP relationship. It is argued that even though the results show statistical significance, they do not necessarily include such a strong informational value. This is caused by methodological limitations, such as potentially biased data on CSR, as well as by the theoretical ones. The main theoretical concern, detected in the dissertation thesis, is a need for redefinition of the banks' driving motives of engaging in CSR activities. Banks engaging in CSR activities for merely strategic reasons should be analysed separately on a firm-level as they may otherwise bias the empirical results. Another important aspect of the work was an argument that banks benefit from CSR mainly through the product differentiation. This could not have been tested empirically, but it is assumed that the product differentiation, for example through reputation enhancement, may play a significant role in boosting bank's profits.
http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-201904

A Study on the Behaviors of Corporate Social Responsibility in Taiwanese Financial Institutions
Ting-Huei Liao, Tamkang University
This dissertation aims to investigate the relationship between the domestic banking devoting to the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with their operating performance. In contrast to existing literatures, this dissertation further observes the degree of CSR related to the bank risk taking degree. Regarding recent studies, it can be found the level of corporate social responsibility usually being access by qualitative indicators, but cannot observe the differences brought by the degree of the corporate devotion to CSR. In view of this, by using the CSR quantitative data provided by CSRHUB to the banking industry of Taiwan, taking into account of the operating performance and various levels of risk categories regression models, the empirical results from the regression model and bootstrapping method confirm that when the banks devote to CSR actions, it will be helpful for the company performance levels of both accounting-based and market-based indicators. It can effectively reduce the potential risk of default. In addition, the bank possess the characteristics of financial holding company has large the positive effects than the bank with non-financial holding company. However, the results are not found in current operating risk indicator.
http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/99838364860008737151

2014 papers

How does extent of environmental protection contribute to firm financial performance and default risk?
Jung-Kai Liang, Tamkang University
In response to the new trends in the global green economy, this research examines the relationship between extent of environmental protection and corporate financial performance, the risk of default. CSRhub database rating 165 companies in Taiwan the scores of corporate social responsibility.In this pater , the degree of environmental protection in accordance with the environmental scores of corporate social responsibility.Other financial information are derived from TEJ database.Select the data for the period from December 2008 to July 2014.

This research confirm that corporate social responsibility and financial performance was non-significant positively correlated, and significant negatively correlated with the risk of default. The degree of environmental protection was non-significant positively correlated with financial performance, and significant negatively correlated with the risk of default. The company can strengthen environmental protection and corporate social responsibility to lower the risk of default.
http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/33696837698270831045

The Association between Corporate Social Performance and Family Firms: Evidences from the CSR Rating Agency
Li-Ting Huang, National Donghua University
Family-controlled firms are important forces in the development of Taiwan's economic growth, and their unique shareholder ownership structure affects their operating performance. This study examines the relationship between family-controlled firms and the corporate social performance (CSP). The sample selected from Taiwan listed companies rated by CSRHUB. Empirical results show that: first, family-controlled firms show poor CSP relative to non family-controlled firms. Second, family-controlled firms have lower grades in each four dimensions of CSP ─ community, employees, environment, and corporate governance. Furthermore, this study documents that when firms are non-family-controlled type and also selected from Common Wealth Magazine "Best Corporate Citizen TOP50", they show the best CSP.
http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/84034053786583697486

The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Earnings Management: Evidence from Taiwan
Chen, Cindy Yi Lin, National Taipei Institute of Business and Technology
An empirical study was done to study the effect of the change in overall corporate social responsibility (CSR) score on earnings management. We measure two different types of earnings management – earnings smoothing and earnings aggressiveness. Data were obtained from the Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) and the CSRHub database. Our main research question is how does CSR activities affect affect a manager’s intention to engage in earnings manipulation activities in Taiwan, if it supports the long-term perspective hypothesis or the managerial opportunism hypothesis. The long-term perspective hypothesis argues that socially responsible firms are not only focused on increasing current profits but also on fostering future relationships with stakeholders, and therefore should not engage in earnings manipulation (Choi et al., 2013). On the other hand, the managerial opportunism hypothesis suggests that managers may strategically use CSR to disguise their opportunistic behaviors. A second research question we try to find out is the relationship between corporate financial performance and earnings management. Empirical results show significant negative results for change in CSR score with earnings aggressiveness, in support of the long-term perspective hypothesis. However, earnings smoothing was not supported for either of these hypotheses. Moreover, corporate financial performance was shown to have a positive relationship with earnings management, specifically earnings smoothing.
http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/44773756134132457938

2013 papers

2012 papers

2011 papers

Additional research papers using CSRHub data:

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