CSR and Financial Performance: The Case of Polish Small and Medium Manufacturers
Abstract
The paper explores the hypothesized link between involvement in social responsibility
and financial performance. In particular, it looks at this relationship among Polish small
and medium manufacturing companies that operate in food, beverage and cosmetics
industries. The statistical analysis involves developing and testing structural model on the
basis of data from a survey of 187 managers supplemented by validated financial metrics
from an external database. The outcomes suggests the existence of a weak but statistically
significant positive correlation between the CSR involvement construct and sales profit
margin (β=0.2). However, CSR seems to have no discernible direct effect on ROA. The
study, as the first project of this kind in Poland, adds to the sparse body of literature on
financial outcomes of CSR in small and medium enterprises from emerging economies.
Another distinguishing feature of this research is its methodological approach which
compares favorably to many previous studies in terms of robustness.