The impact of corporate social responsibility on corporate financial performance: A study of Vietnam listed firms in Agro-food sector

Abstract

From 1960s, the issue of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly attracting the attention of not only social institutions, governments, researchers, but also businesses, investors and consumers as well. Recently, more and more people in the world in general and Vietnam in particular, believe that firms have to take responsibility for their employees and the entire society. However, studies about CSR in Vietnam is still limited and not official. Therefore, this study is conducted in order to investigate the real level of CSR disclosures and the impact of CSR on corporate financial performance (CFP) in Agro-Food sector by Vietnamese listed firms on the basis of the legitimacy and stakeholder theory. So as to investigate the relation of CSR and CFP, firms’ annual reports are used and a CSR checklist based on five categories which are environment, energy, human resource (employee), society and product responsibility is built. CSR checklist covered total of 46 activities. In this research, content analysis is the main method to collect data relevant to CSR activities and CFP figures. This study uses the sample data of 56 firms listed on Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) and Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) covered in 4 years from 2012 to 2015. Before 2012, CSR was a very new concept and most companies in Vietnam had no correctly received about the aspect of CSR so there was not too much information to be collected. Thus, this period time of 2012-2015 is chosen. Variables in this study including CSR index, ROA, ROE, NPM, EPS, and other control variables are firm’s size, firm’s age, ownership structure, and firm’s leverage. Moreover, this research uses regression models for panel data (RE, FE) to investigate the influence of CSR on CFP. xiv The findings of this study reveals that the CSR disclosure level of Vietnamese listed firms in Agro-Food industry is quite high and focusing much on employee and product responsibility. Meanwhile, energy and community accouted respectively for the least and the second least information in its annual reports. In addition, the findings of this study also shows empirical result about the impact of CSR on CFP of Vietnamese listed firms in Agro-Food industry. The result proved that CSR have a significant positive effect on ROA and EPS. On the other hand, CSR has no impact on ROE and NPM. Object: one firm in Agro & Food Industry listed Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE) or Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) Key concepts: corporate social responsibility, corporate financial performance, agro-food, content analysis, ROA, ROE, NPM, EPS Context: Agro & Food industry in Vietnam.