The Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility And Innovation Performance

Corporate social responsibility has been paid more and more attention by stakeholders,and firms with higher level of social responsibility tend to have more innovation will and better innovation performance.Based on the stakeholder theory and the knowledge base view,enterprise implementing corporate social responsibility strategy can reduce the information asymmetry with stakeholders and reduce the uncertainty in the innovation process.The external knowledge of stakeholders can effectively supplement the internal knowledge of enterprises,and the collision between internal and external knowledge is more likely to lead to innovation.Both corporate social responsibility strategy and innovation strategy are core issues in corporate governance.It has theoretical and practical importance to research the relationship between corporate social responsibility and innovation performance under the background of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation".Based on a sample of listed companies that disclosed by RANKINS CSR RATINGS during the period 2009 to 2014,using group difference test and multiple regression method,this paper empirically examines whether corporate social responsibility can improve innovation performance,and tests the moderating effect of political connection.Meanwhile,we further check the impact of CSR on different types of innovation.The results show that corporate social responsibility is positively related to innovation performance,and political connection has negative moderating effect on corporate social responsibility and innovation performance.We also find that corporate social responsibility has a stronger effect on explorative innovation than exploitative innovation.The empirical conclusions imply that corporate social responsibility is a kind of capital investment,and the promotion of social responsibility level is helpful to enhance enterprise innovation.The higher the creativity of innovation,the stronger improve of social responsibility.But political connection will weaken the effect of corporate social responsibility on innovation performance.The dependence on political resources erodes the spirit of innovation and inhibits the power of innovation.This paper enriches the research scope of corporate social responsibility and corporate innovation.For corporate governance,managers should attach importance to the economic value of corporate social responsibility,and be watched out for the negative externality of political connection.