91 /304
91
臺大管理論叢
第
28
卷第
1
期
on stakeholders, firms may be able to enhance their reputation, which would ultimately
have a positive impact on their financial performance.
In a more recent study, Wu and Shen (2013) investigated the relationship between the
CSR index and financial performance in the banking industry. Their results provided
evidence consistent with the findings of Simpson and Kohers (2002) that the reputation of
a financial intermediary may help to promote a firm’s financial performance.
Using advertising expenditure as a proxy for customer awareness, Servaes and
Tamayo (2013) argued that in those firms with lower customer awareness, a negative or
insignificant relationship would be found to exist between CSR and financial
performance, whereas if both advertising expenditure and customer awareness were
sufficiently high, CSR activities could help to improve firm value. Their findings provided
support for the examination of the ‘social impact’ hypothesis previously carried out by
Preston and O’Bannon (1997).
Conversely, however, some studies show support for the trade-off hypothesis, in
which it is proposed that whilst CSR activities involve a certain level of cost, the benefits
remain uncertain, such that the relationship between CSR and financial performance could
be negative, insignificant or mixed.
7
For example, applying Granger causality to examine
the relationship, Makni, Francoeur, and Bellavance (2009) found that corporate social
performance was unaffected by financial performance.
In addition to focusing on financial performance, some studies have also examined
the relationship between CSR and ‘cumulative abnormal returns’ (CARs); for example,
Gao, Faff, and Navissi (2012) analyzed announcements of corporate donations made by
boards in response to the Wenchuan earthquake in China on 12
th
of May 2008, along with
the subsequent stock market impact, and found that abnormal returns were higher for
those firms which had made such donations.
Kong (2012) examined the relationship between CSR activities and stock market
performance in the food industry in China, and revealed that CSR was found to have a
positive effect on abnormal returns over the longer term, with a higher level of
involvement in CSR significantly mitigating negative stock market responses when such
firms were faced with any major shocks. In addition, Chen, Shiu, and Chang (2015) and
7 See Aupperle et al. (1985), McWilliams and Siegel (2001), McWilliams, Siegel, and Wright (2006),
Shen and Chang (2008), and Chih, Chih, and Chen (2010).