Financial and corporate social performance in the UK listed firms: the relevance of non-linearity and lag effects

Using environmental, social and governance scores compiled by Reuters Datastream for each company’s corporate social performance (CSP), we examine the relationship between CSP and corporate financial performance (CFP) of 314 UK listed companies over the period 2002–2015. We further evaluate the rela...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Adegbite, Emmanuel, Guney, Yilmaz, Kwabi, Frank O., Tahir, Suleiman
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer 2018
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55095/
_version_ 1848799117021544448
author Adegbite, Emmanuel
Guney, Yilmaz
Kwabi, Frank O.
Tahir, Suleiman
author_facet Adegbite, Emmanuel
Guney, Yilmaz
Kwabi, Frank O.
Tahir, Suleiman
author_sort Adegbite, Emmanuel
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Using environmental, social and governance scores compiled by Reuters Datastream for each company’s corporate social performance (CSP), we examine the relationship between CSP and corporate financial performance (CFP) of 314 UK listed companies over the period 2002–2015. We further evaluate the relationship between prior and subsequent CFP and prior and subsequent CSP. Based on the system-GMM estimation method, we provide direct evidence that suggests that while CFP and CSP can be linked linearly; however, when we examine the impact of CSP on CFP, the association is more non-linear (cubic) than linear. Our results suggest that firms periodically adjust their level of commitment to society, in order to meet their target CSP. The primary contributions of this paper are testing (1) the non-monotonous relationship between CSP and CFP, (2) the lagged relationship between the two and the optimality of CSP levels, and (3) the presence of a virtuous circle. Our results further suggest that CSP contributes to CFP better during post-crisis years. Our findings are robust to year-on-year changes in CFP and CSP, financial versus non-financial firms, and the intensity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement across industries.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:30:34Z
format Article
id nottingham-55095
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:30:34Z
publishDate 2018
publisher Springer
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-550952019-02-19T04:30:19Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55095/ Financial and corporate social performance in the UK listed firms: the relevance of non-linearity and lag effects Adegbite, Emmanuel Guney, Yilmaz Kwabi, Frank O. Tahir, Suleiman Using environmental, social and governance scores compiled by Reuters Datastream for each company’s corporate social performance (CSP), we examine the relationship between CSP and corporate financial performance (CFP) of 314 UK listed companies over the period 2002–2015. We further evaluate the relationship between prior and subsequent CFP and prior and subsequent CSP. Based on the system-GMM estimation method, we provide direct evidence that suggests that while CFP and CSP can be linked linearly; however, when we examine the impact of CSP on CFP, the association is more non-linear (cubic) than linear. Our results suggest that firms periodically adjust their level of commitment to society, in order to meet their target CSP. The primary contributions of this paper are testing (1) the non-monotonous relationship between CSP and CFP, (2) the lagged relationship between the two and the optimality of CSP levels, and (3) the presence of a virtuous circle. Our results further suggest that CSP contributes to CFP better during post-crisis years. Our findings are robust to year-on-year changes in CFP and CSP, financial versus non-financial firms, and the intensity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement across industries. Springer 2018-02-19 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55095/1/Manuscript_REQU%20%281%29.docx.pdf Adegbite, Emmanuel, Guney, Yilmaz, Kwabi, Frank O. and Tahir, Suleiman (2018) Financial and corporate social performance in the UK listed firms: the relevance of non-linearity and lag effects. Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting . ISSN 1573-7179 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11156-018-0705-x doi:10.1007/s11156-018-0705-x doi:10.1007/s11156-018-0705-x
spellingShingle Adegbite, Emmanuel
Guney, Yilmaz
Kwabi, Frank O.
Tahir, Suleiman
Financial and corporate social performance in the UK listed firms: the relevance of non-linearity and lag effects
title Financial and corporate social performance in the UK listed firms: the relevance of non-linearity and lag effects
title_full Financial and corporate social performance in the UK listed firms: the relevance of non-linearity and lag effects
title_fullStr Financial and corporate social performance in the UK listed firms: the relevance of non-linearity and lag effects
title_full_unstemmed Financial and corporate social performance in the UK listed firms: the relevance of non-linearity and lag effects
title_short Financial and corporate social performance in the UK listed firms: the relevance of non-linearity and lag effects
title_sort financial and corporate social performance in the uk listed firms: the relevance of non-linearity and lag effects
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55095/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55095/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/55095/