The Correlation Between Downward Accountability Through Corporate Social Responsibility And Internal Control Systems for Strategic Mission Success In Organization

Much debate continues over the impact of corporate social responsibility on the financial bottom line of an organization both in academia and with practitioners with most holding to the assertion that good business can and will result from good behavior. The research remains divided as previous empirical studies produced mixed results for the corporate social responsibility-financial performance relationship. This quantitative study assessed the impact of corporate social responsibility practices on the financial performance of businesses when coupled with high-performing internal control system. The secondary data analysis data identified those companies noted as top financial performers, implementers of corporate social responsibility practices, and utilizers of internal control systems. The findings of this quantitative study relate theoretical assertions about the nature of doing good business by being socially responsible to the process of making strategic decisions based upon ANOVA analytics. The secondary data analysis revealed that top financial performers had both highly ranked internal control systems and highly ranked corporate social responsibility implementation, but a correlation between high functioning internal control systems and highly ranked corporate social responsibility implementation was not shown to be statistically relevant. Study findings contribute to the research literature by serving as a base from which scholars may further research to design a repeatable strategy for practitioners to reliably use an optimal internal control system and corporate social responsibility for profitable corporate financial performance.