Investigating the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Competitive Performance: An Empirical Study Based on Panel Data Analysis

Abstract

The present study examines the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on competitive performance of Indian companies. The proxies for the CSR and competitive performance are CSR expenditure and price to book ratio, respectively. The study is based on the 32 companies awarded by CII-ITC Sustainability Awards during 2010–2011 to 2017–2018. After collecting the data of price to book ratio, leverage, CSR expenditure and revenue of entire sample companies, panel data regression has been used to observe the impact of CSR on competitive performance. The results reveal insignificant relationship between CSR and competitive performance. It is noticed that firms do not have a CSR strategy that unifies the diverse range of a company’s philanthropic initiatives under one umbrella. Hence, the present study suggests to embed CSR into the company’s core business strategy.

Keywords

Corporate social responsibility competitive performance sustainability awards strategy

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