Track: Business Management

Abstract

The authors main objective of this paper is to study and analyze the Corporate Social Responsibility
Performance (CSRP) through the relationship of Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) and Corporate Social
Responsibility Spend (CSRS). The authors in this paper attempt to find out if CSR helps in creating value
through CSR Performance and through Corporate Social Financial Performance (CFP) specifically using CSR
Spend. The motivation for the authors to perform this study is to identify and explore the gap particularly in the
area of mandated CSR in the Indian context. The researchers through the study of literature reviews found the
gap in the area of mandated CSR. There have been numerous studies by various researchers that have been
investigated across the globe for the last 20 years on the relationship of Corporate Social Responsibility with
specific focus on Corporate Social Responsibility Performance and Corporate Social Responsibility Spend. The
authors performed an exhaustive overview and review of more than 100 research papers on the above linkage of
CSRP, CFP and CSRS interestingly found that there are no more than 3 studies that explain the linkage for
Indian companies especially within the Indian context. The authors explored the study of relationship using
content analysis, basic statistical methods and ANOVA for analysis. The authors sample comprises of 125 listed
companies out of the 500 listed companies in the National Stock Exchange (NSE) of India. The 125 listed
companies are across various industries and sectors and sub-sectors within the various industries. Using
statistical methods the authors test and compare the CSR Performance of the companies before the mandate and
after the mandate. The authors primarily exploit the new mandate for this study. The authors use the CSR Spend
as well as the CSR Financial parameters (CFP) to analyze the CSR Performance. The authors use 2 time
periods, year before mandate i.e. 2013 and the year after mandate i.e. 2018 for comparison. The authors use
stakeholder theory as the research framework and developed the stakeholders accordingly. The study finds that
there is little difference in the CSR practices of Indian companies due to mandate. However, the mandate has
created greater awareness and that was evident from the CSR Spend. The findings also revealed that the
companies are consciously allocation CSR budgets towards their CSR practices. Though there are no evident
and clear either from the companies, not from the industries or from the sectors towards mandated CSR
Performance. The unique aspects of this paper are it divulges the details of the various companies across various
industries and their impact on CSR Performance due to mandate. The paper contributes to the CSR literature as
it presents empirical evidence of the influence of CSR spend on CSR practices and CSR performance in a
developing country like India that has a mandated setting towards CSR.