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We contribute to the emerging literature on strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its antecedents by undertaking a systematic analysis of the effect of rivalry on firm and industry CSR. We deal with the codetermination of competition and CSR by using instrumental variables in the firm-level analysis and by modeling it directly in the industry-level analysis. We find that higher intensity of rivalry and CSR of competitors increase firm CSR, ceteris paribus; however, in a more dynamic setting when firms can change their production output, more competition in fact decreases aggregate industry CSR. While seemingly contradictory, these findings suggest interesting implications for both managers and public policy makers.

This paper aims to examine whether corporate social responsibility influences the cost of equity capital of firms operating in controversial industry sectors.

This paper computes the ex-ante cost of equity capital implied in analyst earnings forecasts and stock prices for a sample of 2,006 US firm-year observations belonging to controversial industry sectors (alcohol, tobacco, gambling, military, firearms, nuclear power, oil and gas, cement and biotechnology) during the period 1991-2012. The baseline regression model links CSR score to the implied cost of equity capital (ICC) and controls for firm-specific characteristics, industry factors and economic or market-wide factors. This model enables to capture the differential effect of CSR on ICC when the firm belongs to a specific sector of the controversial industries by adding an interaction term between CSR and the dummy variable representing this belonging.

The findings show two main results. First, CSR engagement significantly reduces the implied cost of equity capital (ICC) in all controversial industry sectors, taken as a group, as well as in each one of these sectors individually. Second, this effect is more pronounced when the firm belongs to the alcohol and tobacco industry sectors.

The findings have two important practical implications. First, they should increase managers’ confidence and incentives, in controversial industry sectors, to pursue CSR activities. Second, policymakers can encourage managers to undertake CSR initiatives in controversial industry sectors through tax incentives (e.g. reduce taxes for CSR related investment projects).

This paper extends prior studies that investigate the perceptions of capital market participants of firm’s CSR commitment (Sharfman and Fernando, 2008; Goss and Roberts, 2011; El Ghoul et al., 2011; Jo and Na, 2012; Bouslah et al., 2013) by examining the effect of CSR on ICC in the controversial industry sectors. It contributes to the debate around the relevance of CSR in controversial sectors by providing evidence of the reduction effect of CSR activities on ICC in controversial industries and by showing that this reduction impact is more pronounced when the firm belongs to alcohol, tobacco industry sectors.

Despite the intensive research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm financial performance, little is known about how the linkage between CSR and firm financial performance is heterogeneous across industries and how the performance implications are differentiated among specific categories of CSR activities. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the association between a firm’s engagement in CSR and firm financial performance is heterogeneous across industries and CSR categories.

Using a sample of 17,083 firm-year observations representing 1,877 firms from the largest 3,000 US companies during years 1991 and 2011, the authors compare the association between CSR and firm financial performance across ten industry sectors defined by Global Industry Classification Standard and across the four CSR categories classified by Mandl and Dorr (2007).

The authors find that the association between the overall CSR activities and firm performance is heterogeneous across industries. CSR has significant positive implications for firms from most, but not all, industries. Comparing the performance implication of CSR practices targeting different stakeholder groups, the empirical results indicate that different types of CSR have different influences on financial performance of firms from different industry sectors.

This study provides new angles for managers in maximizing firm performance through CSR activities and suggests an important and interesting direction for researchers who engage in CSR research. Due to its heterogeneous nature, the CSR-performance relationship needs to be examined more specifically – across industries and different CSR categories. Findings from studies incorporating both company industrial sector and CSR categories would provide more meaningful and practical implications for managers.

This study provides important managerial implications. First, to maximize firm performance through CSR activities, managers must interpret the linkage between CSR and firm financial performance from the perspective of a specific industrial sector and acknowledge the importance of CSR practices across different CSR categories. Second, the findings suggest that CSR practices aiming at different stakeholder groups generate different financial returns in different industries. Firms engage in CSR to satisfy different stakeholder groups. When budgets are tight, managers may give higher priority to the CSR practices that have stronger effects on firm financial performance.

This study advances our understanding of the CSR-financial performance relationship by exploring its heterogeneous nature across industry sectors and across specific categories. To obtain the biggest gain from CSR spending, managers must have a good understanding how a specific CSR category can contribute to the financial performance of their particular company in their particular industry.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives (social responsibility, economic responsibility and environmental responsibility) on Jordanian Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (JPM) industry’s business performance.

This study follows a quantitative descriptive design. The data were collected from 116 managers working at seven JPM organizations by questionnaire. After confirming validity and reliability of the tool, the statistical analysis means, standard deviations and t-values were used to test implementation and finally multiple regressions were used to test the hypothesis.

Results show that there are relationships between CSR variables, and all the three variables are strongly related to business performance. The results also indicate that the three sub-variables together affect JPM industry’s business performance. The environmental responsibility has the highest effect on JPM industry’s business performance, followed by the economic responsibility, and then the social responsibility.

This study was directed toward pharmaceutical industry in Jordan. Generalizing the results to other industries and countries is questionable. Therefore, further research on other industries and countries will help mitigate the issue of generalizing conclusions.

CSR should be formulated clearly within JPM corporate strategy. The elements of CSR need to be integrated with the present performance management criteria, leadership development programs and organizational development programs, and a champion for CSR needs to be assigned.

The CSR initiatives should be derived from local culture and match with international initiatives because CSR is the responsibility of every person.

Still the topic of CSR is not well implemented and does not have priority by Jordanian companies; therefore, this study may be considered as one of the few studies dedicated to study this topic and create awareness about it in Jordan.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication covered by the news media is considered as more credible and effective in shaping public perceptions toward corporations than CSR shared by corporations themselves. This is particularly true when CSR is about corporations with social stigma inherent in business practices. This study examines the CSR publicity of stigmatized industries from the journalism lens.

A content analysis was conducted with CSR stories from 2019 to 2020 by USA newspapers (n = 348).

Results of this study showed that the overall volume of CSR from stigmatized industries has decreased, with fewer responses to the recent pandemic. Further, the media brought promotional CSR activities and the business motives behind the activities into focus. Opposing patterns were found for CSR of non-stigmatized industries presented with philanthropic activities based on corporations' social motives to help communities. Similarly, economic and legal responsibilities reflected in the CSR pyramid were more prominently reported for stigmatized industries, and ethical and discretionary responsibilities appeared more frequently for non-stigmatized industries.

Integrating business and media literature, this study enriches scholarly discussions on media processes and effects for CSR communication. This study also provides practical implications for stigmatized industries by highlighting more authentic and careful approaches for CSR communication to earn positive publicity.

This study provides social implications by highlighting the importance of CSR communications through the lens of news media when corporations are socially stigmatized.

Stigmatized industries are known to be active in CSR communication to nullify social stigma surrounding themselves. The authors' findings provide empirical evidence suggesting that not all publicity benefits CSR communication for stigmatized corporations.

The purpose of this study is to examine the ways that sin industry companies attempt to utilise CSR reporting for legitimation.

Conventional and summative content analyses were carried out on annual CSR reports in UK tobacco and gambling companies, juxtaposed against analysis of the actual behaviour of the companies, collectively and individually.

The paper concludes that there is an ongoing tension between the business of sin industry companies and their attempts to establish and maintain any legitimacy, using CSR reporting in particular ways to try to prove their credentials to society and to engage salient stakeholder support. Ultimately, they aim to give themselves the scope for strategic choice to enable survival and financial flourishing.

Further research on CSR on other sin industries and in other jurisdictions with different regulatory situations could shed further light on the achievement or denial of different types of legitimacy. Studying different time periods as industries change would be of value.

On a practical basis, the study offers guidelines to stakeholders on the use of CSR reports from sin companies, and suggests the establishment of objective external CSR reports, overseen by accounting regulators.

The paper provides an overview of the role of sin industries in society, and mitigating their harms.

This study allowed for a comprehensive, dynamic and inclusive understanding of the interplay of CSR reporting and legitimacy by addressing conflicting interests between sin companies' social effects and inherent activities at the industry level. The methodology of multiple case study design in two sin industries combined content analysis of CSR reports, juxtaposed against analysis of behaviour in context. Previous research included the juxtaposition of actuality in analysis of only single case studies or particular issues. Thus, this research allows for a broader industry understanding. On a practical basis, the study offers guidelines to stakeholders on the use of CSR reports from sin companies, and suggests the establishment of objective external CSR reports, overseen by accounting regulators. At the social level, the paper provides an overview of sin industries in society, and mitigating their harms.

This study aims to revisit the relative importance of industry and firm level effects on corporate social responsibility (CSR), with the objective of clarifying their diverse effects on CSR.

The authors suggest that CSR is a shared strategic asset based on insights from the industrial organization and institutional schools, taking into account that there are determinants of CSR that may be operating inside the corporation according to the resource‐based view. They employ a variance components method and a sample compiled of 495 US firms from 19 industries using five‐year periods.

The study indicates that firms retain considerable self‐determinism regarding their CSR trajectories, but the latter also represent a shared strategic asset. Thus, these results combined imply that CSR needs to be examined on both levels simultaneously.

The results of this study can provide non‐governmental organizations and governmental and regulatory institutions with an indicator that explains the performance variation levels of each dimension of CSR, and can help improve tools designed to promote it. Furthermore, the authors' research provides managers with evidence of CSR variability among CSR dimensions that could help in strategic decision‐making. In addition this research can provide assistance and give perspective regarding selection criteria for investment portfolios in responsible investment funds.

The industry effect is an important factor to consider in CSR intensity. The variation in firm and industry effects on CSR strategies has not been extensively studied; hence, explaining the sources of performance differences regarding industry and firm factors is a key theoretical and empirical issue in the field of management.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the literature on industry-specific corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices.

Using a multiple-keyword search, the authors identified 302 articles reporting on such practices, published in 99 different academic journals between 1995 and 2014. These articles were analyzed to map the CSR literature, identify which industries have been under greater scrutiny and distinguish trends in the most researched industries.

The authors’ findings indicate that the CSR studies are very unevenly distributed and that the issues studied and the methods used vary widely across industries. The authors also map this field of study and propose suggestions on where research on industry-specific CSR should go in the future.

The first extensive, systematic analysis of the industry-specific CSR literature is provided. The current research adds value to the literature by highlighting the key issues investigated, as well as those that require further inquiry.

The business world today is witnessing ever-growing disruption. This study highlights corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an effective strategy for firms in disrupted industries to consider in order to differentiate themselves and to increase their chance of survival facing disruption.

In this study, the authors test the hypotheses using a multilevel modeling (MLM) design to capture the group and intergroup effects at the industry level and at the firm level. The empirical analysis is based on a panel sample of 1,193 firms over the 10-year period from 2010 to 2019.

The empirical analysis indicates that CSR has a positive impact on corporate financial stability and the effect is especially significant for firms in disrupted industries. Further investigation suggests that this positive effect largely runs through traits of the social pillar, such as human rights, employee relations, customer protection, product responsibility and community impact. The results are robust after controlling for other firm-specific characteristics and after addressing endogeneity concerns.

This study examines whether, and through which channel, CSR helps enhance corporate financial stability and mitigate bankruptcy risk in disrupted industries. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first attempt to explore the use of CSR as an effective strategic response to disruption. Further analysis indicates that the social capital built through CSR plays an important role in helping enhance corporate financial stability.

The present study aims to explore the concepts involved in the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and customer and employee satisfaction in service industries.

The research literature over the recent decade has been analyzed using a systematic review. Through thematic analysis and coding the findings of the final selected articles, the authors presented an integrative framework of the relationship between CSR and the satisfaction of critical stakeholders of service companies, namely, customers and employees.

The research framework encompasses six main categories called CSR, satisfaction, moderators, conditional variables, contextual variables and satisfaction outcomes. All categories but CSR are divided into customer and employee sections to make the research framework further comprehensible.

The results show that in service industries, employees need as much attention as customers, and CSR efforts to satisfy customers and employees can lead to several positive outputs for companies.

Failure of service companies to commit to their social responsibility may harm the environment, society’s ethics and laws and long-term corporate profitability. On the other hand, adherence to CSR can lead to social development and economic growth.

This study is one of the most comprehensive studies in the field of CSR and satisfaction, which simultaneously considers the two key stakeholders of a service company. In addition, it provides valuable avenues for further studies.