A Study On The Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility And Corporate Financial Performance

The focus of this paper is on the relationship between the Corporate Social Responsibility (hereafter CSR) and the Corporate Financial Performance (hereafter CFP). The paper probes into the theoretical issues, including the oringin, nature, and evolution of CSR and its combination with stakeholder theory, and into the empirical issues of CSR-CFP relationship. The research is in a financial perspective, adopts the research methodology for thought history, relies heavily on theoretical analysis and is supported by empirical evidences.The paper consists of three main parts, which are theoretical analysis, empirical research and the applications. The research starts from an overview of two theoretical frameworks for CSR-CFP relationship, which are CSR idea and the stakeholder theory; then the research surveys the empirical evidences on CSR-CFP relationship over the past 30 years; finally the research ends in the applications and practices of CSR in China.The reminder of this paper is organized as follows.Chapter 1 briefly introduces the issues, implications, contents and methodologies, as well as the contributions of the paper.Chapter 2 traces the oringins of CSR idea and the debates on CSR, then discloses that CSR is an inexorable result of economic development and is a revolution in the understanding of the nature of corporations.Chapter 3 deduces an evolution process of CSR, from a narrow sense of CSR in the 1950s, to Corporate Response in the 1970s, and finally to Corporate Social Performance in the 1980s.Chapter 4 summarizes the empirical research on CSR-CFP relationship over the past 30 years, including the hypotheses, implications, shortcomings and future of the empirical research.Chapter 5 reviews the emergence of stakeholder theory. Internally, the idea is improved from a concept to a theoretical framework; externally, the idea is challenging the traditional shareholder theory.Chapter 6 analyzes the combination of CSR idea with the stakeholder theory. On the one side, CSR idea is suffering from the shortage of a theoretical framework; on...