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Social Responsibility & Financial Performance Linkage: Page | 14
An International Journal
J. Org. Management 1(1), 14-21, 2012
HATAM Publishers
Journal of Organizational Management
Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performan
ce Linkage‐
Evidence from the Banking Sector of Bangladesh
1
, Ikramul Hasan
School of Business, Independent University, Bangladesh
, iha3@hotmail.com
Faculty of Business, Economics and Policy Studies, University Brunei Darussala
m (UBD),
Jalan Tungku Link, Gadong BE 1410, Brunei.
ARTICLE INFORMATION ABSTRACT
Received 10 April 201
1 (CFP). In doing s
Revised 20 August 20 o we have
11 summarized the findings of the empirical studies,
Available online 05 Jan. 20
drawn the
12
of corporate social performance (CSP) and finall
y made an
Corporate Social investigation on the banking sector of Bangladesh. T
Responsibility, Financi he results of
al the study revealed that the average return on asset r
Performance, atios of the
Ban having low CSP, though this could not be prove
k d statistically.
However, we should not write off the possibility
of this linkage
measured in this study would serve as an important benchmark
for further studies.
© 2011 HATAM Publishers. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
responsible companies. Through globalization companies pursue growth, an
d active involvement in
socially beneficial programs provides competitive advantages to the company in
pursuing such goals.
the respective nations, otherwise government regulations, environmental restricti
ons, labor exploitation
issues and more can cost companies millions of dollars. Under these circumstanc
es, Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) can increase both long term profitability and sustainability of
the company as well
as enhance the reputation of the organization. The last three decades have seen
a mounting pressure
hindrance, while a few have managed to use CSR methodologies as a strategic t
actic to obtain public
Social Responsibility & Financial Performance Linkage: Page | 15
support for their presence in the global markets. Nevertheless, this helps the com
panies to sustain a
competitive advantage by using their social contributions. Researchers around th
e world, over the past
Financial Performance (CFP). Building upon this premise, the objective of t
his study is to draw a
conceptual framework for examining the direction of the linkage betwe
en corporate social
responsibility and corporate financial performance and apply the framework o
n the banking sector in
2. Methodology and data collection
corporate social responsibility of banks by measuring a corporate social pe
rformance (CSP) index
though a questionnaire survey. Based on the grades banks were separated into t
wo categories: CSR
difference between these two categories of banks with respect to their ROA, EPS
and P/E ratio data
collected from the published annual report of the banks.
3. Overview on CSR
behavior with the expectations and needs of stakeholders – not just customers a
nd investors, but also
employees, suppliers, communities, regulators, special interest groups and s
ociety as a whole. CSR
still does not have a standard definition or a fully recognized set of specific criteri
a. CSR is generally
understood to be the way a company attains a balance or integration of economic
, environmental, and
social imperatives while at the same time addressing shareholder and stakeholde
r expectations, with
social responsibility (CSR) has become a prominent topic in the both busin
ess and academic press.
Nevertheless, opinions differ as to whether a firm’s CSR activity provides any eco
nomic benefits.
According to Frankental (2001) “CSR is a vague and intangible term which ca
n mean anything to
anybody, and therefore is effective without meaning.” On the other hand, T
he Commission for the
environmental concerns in the business operations and in their interactions with t
heir stakeholders on
a voluntary basis”. According to Wood (1991), “the basic idea of CSR is that busi
ness and society are
interwoven rather than distinct entities” and for Mallenbaker (2006), “CSR i
s about how companies
manage the business process to produce an overall positive impact on so
ciety”. More generally, a
distinction has been drawn between CSR seen as philanthropy as opposed to CS
R as a core business
encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary expectations th
at society has of
organizations at a given point in time”.
3.1 CSR in Banks
pollutants into the air, land or water and thus apparently they might be vi
ewed as uninvolved with
environmental issues (Cowton and Thompson, 2000). But through their fina
ncing practices they are
supporting commercial activity that ultimately degrades the natural environm
ent (Smith, 1993). They
act as facilitators by supplying the fund to support the production process
which ultimately causes
of indirect involvement in environmental damages and recognize their envir
onmental responsibility,
which is a part of their CSR, to strike a balance between economic and social go
als to encourage the
their own sustainability and profitability (Wanless, 1995).
Involvement in environmental degradation will not only invite public criti
cism and negative
customer reaction, but also might make regulations more stringent which c
an impair the bank
For example, the Montreal protocol has banned the production of ozone-depleting substa
nces, which is
Social Responsibility & Financial Performance Linkage: Page | 16
responsible for their clients’ environmental impacts . Thus banks have stro
ng prudential reasons for
trying to avoid lending in ways that expose them to environmental risk an
d have clear incentive to
incorporating environmental criteria into the lending decision making process.
In contrast, the status of environmental risk management by banks is not
satisfactory in least
developed countries like Bangladesh, largely due to inadequate existence a
nd poor enforcement of
Bangladesh Bank, the Central Bank of the country, asked all commercial ban
ks (BRPD-No-12 dated
8.10.1997) to undertake necessary steps in light of the implementation of certain
decisions with regard
to environmental conservation and protection of environmental pollution by the N
ational Environment
are asked to ensure that steps have been undertaken to control environm
ental pollution before
financing a new project or providing working capital financing to the existin
g enterprises. However,
is not in the priority list of the banks in Bangladesh during lending and in other op
erations. A lot needs
to be changed in terms of policies and mindsets, and in formulation of ne
w and implementations of
existing regulations.
3.2 Relationship between CSR and financial Performance
performance (Clinebell and Clinebell, 1994; Hannon and Milkovich, 1996; Posnik
off, 1997; Teoh et al.,
1999; Worrell et al., 1991; Wright and Ferris, 1997). Some studies uses the event
study methodology
to assess the short-run financial impact (abnormal returns) when firms engage in
socially responsible
or irresponsible acts and the results of these studies have been mixed. Te
oh et al. (1999) found no
relationship and Posnikoff (1997) reported a positive relationship; and McWi
lliams and Siegel (1997)
studies are inconsistent on the relationship between CSR and short run fin
ancial returns. Through a
broad-based index of corporate social performance, Waddock and Graves (
1997) analyses whether
there is a positive relationship between corporate social performance and fi
nancial performance and
whether both slack resource and good management theory may be operati
ng simultaneously. Using
financial performance and that the sign of the relationship is positive. Researcher
s view that, corporate
social performance is a kind of virtuous circle, there is a simultaneous rela
tionship, and corporate
McWilliams and Siegel (2000), found that, when research and development (R&D
) and industry factors
are excluded, the coefficient on corporate social performance (CSP) (a measure
of CSR), is positive
included, the degrees of the coefficient reduce dramatically and are no lon
ger significant and CSP
showed a neutral effect on profitability.
4. Measuring CSR
index, where knowledgeable observers rate firms on the basis of one or
more dimensions of social
performance. One reputation index was generated by Moskowitz (1972), who ove
r a period of several
years rated a number of firms as outstanding, honorable mention, or worst (Mosk
owitz, 1972). Content
analysis is a second method of measuring CSR. Normally, in content anal
ysis the extent of the
reporting of CSR activities in various firm publications and especially in the
annual report (used by
5. Measuring Financial Performance
accounting returns. The basic idea of investor returns is that, the return should be
measured from the
perspective of shareholders. Whereas, Accounting Return measures of financial
performance focuses
on how firm earnings respond to different managerial policies.
client since it was adjudged to have been in a position to influence the company’s busines
s decisions (Cowton
Social Responsibility & Financial Performance Linkage: Page | 17
Market performance measures by risk-adjusted return, or alpha, and tot
al return are used by
McGuire et al. (1988) as measures of financial performance. Accounting-
based performance
Independent Variables Dependent Variables
Financial Performance
Return on assets (ROA)
Return on equity (ROE)
CSR
CSP Return on sales (ROS)
SIZE Earnings per share (EPS)
Price/earnings (P/E) ratios
R&D (expenditure/Sales)
Share price returns
Advertising intensity
Environmental performance Sales growth
Prior Financial performance Assets growth
Excess market Valuation
Asset Age
Operating earnings to assets
Operating earnings to sales
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework
growth. The ratio of debt to assets, operating leverage, and the standard deviatio
n of operating income
were other accounting-based measures of risk. Waddock and Graves (1997
) measured financial
performance using three accounting variables: return on assets, return on equity,
and return on sales,
community.
Earnings per share (EPS) or price/earnings (P/E) ratios are used in so
me studies as the most
common measure of accounting returns (Bragdon and Marlin 1972). On the other
hand, Cochran and
Wood (1984), used three account returns measures: the ratio of operating earnin
gs to assets, the ratio
of financial performance are used by researchers: market-to-book ratio; accounti
ng profit ratio (return
on assets, return on equity, return on investment, and return on sales) and stock
market returns.
6. Conceptual framework of the research
between CSR and CFP, and ways to measure them. The result of this review mig
ht be concluded in
the following manner, and by drawing a conceptual framework as shown in Figur
e 1:
impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate financial performanc
e (CFP). Hence
rather than having any preconceived idea on the direction of the relationship, ther
e needs to be an
open view on this: the linkage between CSR and CFP will depend on vari
ous factors, e.g.,
2. Among the two common methods of measuring CSR, to the authors are going
to use a reputation
index to measure the CSP in Bangladesh. It may be noted that there are no p
ublished source of
knowledgeable observer rating of social performance. The authors will h
ave to develop a
questionnaire and ask the knowledgeable observer to rate the firm on fi
ve dimensions of social
performance.
Social Responsibility & Financial Performance Linkage: Page | 18
3. Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) will be measured both by investors re
turn and accounting
return.
6.1 Measuring Corporate Social Performance (CSP)
banks. The contents of the questionnaire and score ranges are summarized in Ta
ble 1.
6.2 Applying to the Banking Sector of Bangladesh
Owned Commercial Banks (SCB), five government owned specialized bank
s, thirty domestic private
banks, nine foreign banks and twenty-nine non-bank financial institutions (B
B, 2009). For this study,
the CSP survey was conducted on twenty domestic private banks, out of
which seventeen
Table 1: Contents of the corporate social performance (CSP) questionnaire used
in the survey
Maximum Score
1.
2. Adoption and scope of ethical principles 10
Communication of the company’s ethical value 10
s
10
2. in managemen 10
3. t
4. Profit sharing and performance bonuses 10
10
6. Development of human resource
7. s 10
70
Preparation for retirement of worker
s
Total Score for Segment 2
stakeholders 10
meeting 10
10
5. 10
Total Score for Segment
3
10
10
Commitment to the environmental cause
10
40
2. 5.
3. 6.
izations
Philanthropy/ social investments
10
Mobilization of resources for social investment 10
o Recognition and support for volunteer work by employe
r es
g 10
a 10
n
60
Grand Total 250
Social Responsibility & Financial Performance Linkage: Page | 19
Values &Transparency
80
60
40
Community
Workplace
20
0
Corporate
Environment
Governance
Figure 2: Status of surveyed banks in segments
7. Findings
7.1 CSR indicators
had highest average score of 72 percent in corporate governance and low
est average score of 49
percent in environmental activities. Thus it can be observed from figure 2 that the
banks are lacking in
environmental and workplace aspects of social responsibility.
7.2 Test results
difference of means of return on assets (ROA) between NCSR (3 and below) and
CSR (4 and above)
banks. From the table we can see that the ROA of the CSR banks are higher whe
n compared against
the NCSR banks. Thus we can comment that CSR banks are performing better th
an the NCSR banks.
variances were assumed on all statistical tests. This leads us to accept the null h
ypothesis.
Table 2: Return on Assets
Mean 2.42
t-test of paired samples:
0.616
t-test statistic 0.872
On the other hand, the results of the difference of means of EPS and
P/E ratio are summarized
through Table 3 and 4. As shown in Table 3 EPS of the CSR banks are
higher compared to that of
NCSR banks. So we can comment that CSR banks are performing better
than the NCSR banks.
The two-tailed t-test does not support this observation.
that the P/E Ratio of the CSR banks are lower when compared against the NCSR
banks. Thus it can
Social Responsibility & Financial Performance Linkage: Page | 20
be observed that CSR banks are performing better than the NCSR banks. Again t
he two-tailed t-test
does not confirm this observation. Thus, the authors had to accept the null hypot
hesis.
Mean 275.71
t-test of paired samples:
211.406
t-test statistic 1.507
Mean 9.01
t-test of paired samples:
-5.842
t-test statistic -0.827
8. Conclusion
responsibility performance and financial performance and present the result
s of the study conducted
on the banking companies in Bangladesh. The results of the study can be summa
rized as follows:
I. The results of the analysis revealed that the banks’ social performance
s were below 75
percent in all the five categories of CSR indicators, especially value &
transparency,
in the environmental (49 percent) and workplace (50 percent) aspects. This
might be due to
the fact that, banks are yet to incorporate environmental aspects in project
selection, loan
disbursement and regular day to day activities. However, the workplace as
pect reflects an
overall inadequacy of good working condition in the publicly traded banking
companies of
II. In all cases of absolute comparison between ROA, EPS and P/E ratio it was f
ound that CSR
banks outperformed the NCSR banks. However, in all the two-tailed t-
tests, no significant
evidence was found to show that CSR banks outperform the NCSR ba
nks. This finding is
indicate that it will take a long time to see a significant linkage between
CSR and financial
performance in developing countries like Bangladesh.
Following through from the findings of this study, writing-off the link bet
ween CSR and CFP
completely would be unjustified. More detailed follow-up studies are needed
to monitor this linkage.
This study in this respect would serve as a base for examining the linkage betwe
en corporate social
capital markets.
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