Enterprises are profit-oriented economies, and the pursuit of profit maximization is the fundamental purpose of enterprises. Whether corporate social responsibility has an impact on corporate performance and what kind of impact it has had has always been the focus of theoretical and business circles, and it is also a controversial issue in the field of corporate social responsibility research. So far, there is no unified conclusion. To sum up, there are three main tendencies: First, there is a positive correlation between them. Scholars who agree with this view believe that according to stakeholder theory and transaction cost theory, enterprises can satisfy stakeholders in the process of fulfilling their social responsibilities, thus reducing transaction costs and expenses. Moreover, corporate social responsibility can make enterprises gain competitive advantage, increase brand value and bring wealth to shareholders. Second, there is a negative correlation between them. Scholars who agree with this view believe that enterprises will inevitably increase some unnecessary costs in the process of fulfilling their social responsibilities, which runs counter to the purpose of enterprises' existence-profit maximization. Third, the relationship between the two is unstable, and some studies think that the two are irrelevant.
(1) There is a positive correlation between them.
Jones (1995) believes that corporate social responsibility is a tool for enterprises to achieve sustainable development, and its core lies in obtaining important resources for enterprise development by effectively managing the relationship between stakeholders. Liu Yanping (2003) believes that enterprises will gain the loyalty and support of employees and other stakeholders by establishing an employee-centered business philosophy, thus greatly enhancing their competitiveness and improving their performance. Schnietz(2005) took all the enterprises in Seattle as samples, combined with the case of the failure of Seattle trade negotiations, and concluded through empirical analysis that enterprises with good corporate social responsibility are more likely to survive in the crisis than those without or with little social responsibility. Zhao Xiaodong (2006) and others analyzed the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate profits, corporate social responsibility and corporate market share, corporate social responsibility and long-term development of enterprises, and thought that corporate social responsibility can improve the economic returns of enterprises. Moser and Martin(20 12) made a meta-analysis of 2 15 studies on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate performance, and found that there was a positive correlation between them on the whole.
Some scholars comprehensively consider the endogenous problem of corporate social responsibility when studying the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate performance. Yin (20 14) and other empirical evidences prove that under the assumption that corporate social responsibility is exogenous, corporate social responsibility has a significant positive impact on current financial performance, and vice versa. Under the assumption of endogenous corporate social responsibility, current corporate social responsibility and current financial performance interact and are mutually causal. Hou Hezhang (20 15) also fully considered the endogenous influence of corporate social responsibility, and the research results show that there is a two-way positive correlation between corporate social responsibility and financial performance.
Some scholars have found another way to analyze the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate performance by adding intermediary variables or moderating variables. For example, Cai Yuexiang (20 15) and others made an empirical analysis using the data obtained from the questionnaire survey as an intermediary variable, and found that corporate social responsibility has a positive impact on the visibility and reputation of corporate reputation, which can reduce the operating costs of enterprises, but the profitability of enterprises has not been significantly improved. Guo and Hu Bing (20 16) confirmed that marketing ability has a positive regulatory effect on the relationship between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance, that is, marketing ability can effectively play the market value effect of corporate social performance.
(2) There is a negative correlation between them.
Friedman (1970) believes that corporate social responsibility is actually that managers are taxing shareholders without authorization, which is actually consuming the company's resources and increasing the company's costs, so the better corporate social responsibility is performed, the worse its financial performance will be. Michael C.Jensen(200 1) believes that the behavior of corporate social responsibility is contrary to the goal pursued by enterprises-maximizing enterprise value, so corporate social responsibility is negatively related to financial performance. Barnett(2007) also thinks that corporate social responsibility is an unnecessary cost, which will increase the financial burden of enterprises. Wang Huaiming and Song Tao (2008) analyzed the data of 180 listed companies, and came to the conclusion that corporate social responsibility to employees is negatively related to corporate performance. Aneel Karnani(20 10) thinks that enterprises can't have both economic and social benefits. If an enterprise fulfills its social responsibility, it will inevitably lose some benefits and hinder the growth of its financial performance. Zhong Ruiqing's research (20 13) shows that under China's current national conditions, enterprises do bear excessive costs in fulfilling their social responsibilities, which is also the fundamental reason why the theory of corporate social responsibility cannot be put into practice. Dou Xinfeng (20 15) used the fixed effect analysis method to analyze listed companies in China, and found that corporate social responsibility did not significantly promote financial performance, but there was a significant lag effect.
(3) irrelevant or uncertain relationship
A few scholars have found that there is no significant correlation between corporate social responsibility and corporate performance. Chen and Metcalf( 1980) studied the relationship between pollution control performance and financial performance, and the results showed that there was no significant relationship between them. Aupperle (1985) conducted a questionnaire survey on 8 18 corporate executives in the business directory of Forbes magazine. The questionnaire contains 1 17 indicators to measure corporate social responsibility. The results show that there is no correlation between corporate social responsibility and long-term and short-term performance of enterprises. Chen Yuqing and others (2005) think that the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance is very weak, but there are great differences between different industries.
Some scholars believe that the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate performance is uncertain, and their long-term and short-term performances are different. Wen (2008) and others divided corporate social responsibility into monetary capital stakeholders, human capital stakeholders, ecological capital stakeholders and social capital stakeholders from the perspective of stakeholders, and built a stakeholder model of corporate social responsibility. Based on the data of 46 listed companies from 2003 to 2007, the panel data model is used for analysis. The results show that from the current results, most corporate social responsibility variables are related to the current period. Yang He (20 16) based on the national conditions of China, taking large, medium and small enterprises as samples, empirically tested the influence of social responsibility of large, medium and small enterprises on their short-term and long-term financial performance. The results show that neither large enterprises nor small and medium-sized enterprises will worsen their short-term financial situation, but as far as long-term performance is concerned, large enterprises have a positive relationship, while small and medium-sized enterprises have a negative relationship.
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