Does CSR Performance Increase Financial Performance?: Evidence from the Nordic and Central and Eastern European Countries

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate whether or not CSR performance has an effect on financial performance, and simultaneously expand this research into a yet to be investigated region, the Central and Eastern European Countries. By doing so it sought to expand the existing literature, and also test whether or not the existing accepted literature holds up in different regions than the Nordic and Western European region. Data was collected from publicly available sources, such as company websites, CSR reports and Bloomberg Terminal. The collected data was then tested by running a regression in SPSS, and further tested through a t test and robustness checks. The results of the data analysis mostly confirmer the existing literature, namely that CSR increased financial performance. This was further confirmed as this also holds true for the CEEC region. Overall this contributes to the CSR research through the confirmation of previous literature, and by showing that it is not limited to a Western concept. Companies from outside the West can therefore also benefit from implementing CSR strategies.