The geography of CSR

Author

David K. DING, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Christo FERREIRA, Massey University
Udomsak WONGCHOTI, Massey University

Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

1-2019

Abstract

We regress socio-economic indicators against firm level CSR scores using a sample of over 26,000 firm year observations from 1991 through 2009. We find that a firm's CSR profile is linked to the socio-economic conditions of the firm's geographic headquarters (HQ) location. The study documents that the legal, cultural, economic, and demographic differences across geography significantly explain the variation in CSR means between metropolitan statistical areas, states, and regions. We also find that the relation between CSR and firm performance is conditional on socio-economic factors, which highlight the endogeneity concerns inherent in CSR studies. Lastly, we show that firms that cluster along a CSR continuum experience an increase in firm value.

Keywords

CSR, Geography, Corporate governance, Firm location, Tobin's Q

Discipline

Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics | Finance and Financial Management

Research Areas

Finance

Publication

International Review of Economics and Finance

Volume

59

First Page

265

Last Page

288

ISSN

1059-0560

Identifier

10.1016/j.iref.2018.09.003

Publisher

Elsevier

Citation

DING, David K.; FERREIRA, Christo; and WONGCHOTI, Udomsak. The geography of CSR. (2019). International Review of Economics and Finance. 59, 265-288.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/5996

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iref.2018.09.003