Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of Multinational Companies. The Impact of CSR on Corporate Financial Performance

This essay is concerned with the empirical question whether Corporate Social Responsibility of Multinational Companies has an impact on its financial performance. Currently, the widely spread debate about the importance of responsible and sustainable behavior of firms leads to different positions in the business world and requires explicit generally excepted answers. The multitude of already existing studies shows that it is almost impossible to find one commonly accepted definition and one perfectly fitting level of CSR. This study works out two widely accepted measures of CSR and its relation to financial performance in the context of a company´s reputation. The results of these studies show that a positive relation between social and environmental awareness and the accounting-based financial performance of a company do in fact exist. By using data from already analyzed meta-studies, the phenomenon can be explained by the importance of reputation in today´s business world.