Interaction Between CSR and Financial Performance. Comparing the Largest Multinational FMCG Corporations in Europe and the USA

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Business Ethics, Corporate Ethics, grade: 9 out of 10 (max. 10), , course: 3, language: English, abstract: Several research studies have examined corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its effects on business performance, but their results vary widely.

This paper studies the interaction between social, environmental and short-term financial performance. Using a sample of the 16 largest multinational FMCG companies from the US and Europe covering the period 2005-2012 and employing two different test methods, namely ordinary least squares (OLS) and Granger causation.

We demonstrate that while all CSR dimensions have significant financial effects, there has been only one causality link found between employment structure and short-term profitability.