Is the relationship between CSR activities and financial performance of organizations a short term result? An answer with a panel data analysis

Resumen

For many years we have sought to find evidence on the profitability of activities related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), obtaining different results. This could be explained in terms of the inadequate specification of the estimated models, due to the complex task of identifying and defining the variables that influence the performance of organizations. The objective of this work is to model the relationship between different indicators that measure the profitability and the CSR activities, controlling for fundamental and macroeconomic variables, based on the estimation of econometric models for panel data. The results obtained show evidence that indicates a positive relationship between CSR and financial performance, measured through the fundamental variables: return on assets, return on equity and the price to book multiple. In the case of stock return there is no evidence of any relationship with CSR activities, a situation that may indicate an undervaluation of CSR activities. The lack of relationship between CSR activities and stock return may suggest a bias in investor believes, such as confirmation bias or overconfidence bias, which cause an imperfection of market.