Heterogeneous CSR Approaches, Corporate Social Performance and Corporate Financial Performance

In this paper, we identify heterogeneous CSR approaches by segregating the promised and realised social performance of firms to better understand how corporate social performance affects financial performance. Empirical CSR literature provides predominantly mixed findings on the social performance to financial performance relation because it often implicitly assumes that social performance is homogenous. We move beyond this homogeneity by observing that 50%, 24%, and 26% of the firms respectively approach strategic CSR, CSR-as-insurance, and corporate greenwashing. Where empirical CSR literature primarily analyses social performance in general, we show that it is precisely the heterogeneity in CSR approaches that shapes the social and financial performance of firms. Specifically, strategic CSR firms outperform CSR-as-insurance and especially corporate greenwashing firms in both realised social performance and financial performance.