Corporate Social Performance, Reputation And Corporate Value

The research on the relationship between corporate social performance and corporate value is motivated by the desire to provide a convincing rationale for managers to adopt socially responsible practices. However, the aggregate results of this work are contradictory and ambiguous. The objective of this study is to put forward a theoretical model of the process of value creation from the corporate social performance through corporate reputation as the vehicle, and empirically test the relationship of corporate social performance, corporate reputation and corporate value.First of all, the literature review is provided by two parts, one is about "corporate social performance and reputation", the other is about "reputation and corporate value" in order to build the theoretical analysis framework to the relationship between corporate social performance, reputation and corporate value. Secondly, in order to formally investigate the research questions, two regression models are employed. One is to test the relation between corporate social performance and corporate reputation, and the moderating effects of social disclosure, by the logistic regression model; the other is to examine the relationship of corporate reputation, competitive intensity and corporate value by a multiple regression model. Both are using the data of list companies operating in China during 2007 to 2009.The results show that the relation between corporate social performance and corporate reputation is positive but insignificant; however, corporate social report can affect the relationship between corporate social performance and corporate reputation, with social disclosure contributing to the promotion of a positive reputation. Moreover, corporate reputation is also positively related with firm value. Firms in highly competitive industries are more likely to have a positive relationship between corporate reputation and firm value. This suggests that the relationship between corporate social performance and corporate value is not only conditioned on reputation but also influenced by the environment of information and competition.