Investigation of the relationship between CSR and organizational performance

Abstract

I examined how and why corporate social responsibility (CSR) contributes to firms’ financial performance. Extant research on the performance implication of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has mainly focused on how CSR affects the external stakeholders, yet it is relatively understudied how CSR affects the “internal” stakeholders (i.e., employees) to be translated into organizational performance. In chapter 1, I investigated the work engagement of employees as a mediator of CSR and firm’s financial performance, as well as the moderating role of strategic coherence. A 3-wave longitudinal survey data of 3,343 organizational members from 518 branches and performance records from one of the largest commercial banks were used. In chapter 2, using the 4-wave longitudinal survey data of 3,223 employees in 330 branches as well as archival data on objective performance from the bank, I examined if CSR？performance link is mediated by organizational identification (OI), and further investigate whether a leader’s internalized morality moderates this mediation. Lastly, in chapter 3, I investigated not only how individual member’s organizational trust mediates the CSR？performance linkage, but also how past organizational performance moderates the relationship between CSR and organizational trust. I utilized both a 4-wave longitudinal survey from 6000 employees of 500 branches and archival data on organizational performance indicators of the bank.