近年來企業社會責任逐漸成為公司營運的必要核心策略之一,過去企業社會責任與財務績效關聯性研究尚未獲得一致定論。因此,本研究透過Baron & Kenny在1986年所提出的分析模式,將企業社會責任分為正向企業社會責任和負向企業社會責任,探討正向、負向企業社會責任與財務績效的直接效果,以及公司銷貨成長率與銷貨成本率對企業社會責任與財務績效的中介效果。財務績效以資產報酬率、股東權益報酬率、銷售報酬率及Tobin’s Q作為衡量指標,以美國前三千大企業為研究對象,研究期間自2004年至2012年。研究結果發現,負向企業社會責任與資產報酬率及銷售報酬率皆呈顯著負相關,正向企業社會責任與市場價值呈顯著正相關;而考量前期正向、負向企業社會責任的效果後,正向企業社會責任與股東權益報酬率呈顯著正相關,負向企業社會責任與銷售報酬率呈顯著負相關。在中介效果方面,考量前期正向、負向企業社會責任的效果後,當中介變數為公司銷貨成長率,正向企業社會責任與股東權益報酬率之間存有部分中介效果,表示正向企業社會責任會透過銷貨成長率去影響財務績效。
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become one of the core strategies of business operations in recent years. However, the relationship between CSR and financial performance (FP) has not reached consistent conclusions. Based on Baron and Kenny’s model (1986) separating CSR into positive CSR and negative CSR, this study investigates the direct relationship between CSR and FP and the mediating effect of sales growth rate and cost of goods sold ratio on the relationship via path analysis. This study measures FP through return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), return on sales (ROS), and Tobin’s q. The dataset includes the 3,000 largest US companies and covers the years 2004-2012. The results indicate that negative CSR is significantly negatively correlated with ROA and ROS; positive CSR and Tobin’s q are significantly positively correlated. Taking the effect of the prior year of CSR into consideration, positive CSR and ROE have a significantly positive correlation; negative CSR and ROS have a significantly negative correlation. Furthermore, when sales growth rate acts as the mediator, a mediating effect exists between positive CSR and ROE.