Corporate social performance and financial performance: further suggestions from a literature review

The paper presents a literature review based on empirical studies on the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) or corporate environmental performance (CEP) and corporate financial performance (CFP). 70 articles were analyzed in order to define the theoretical background, the methods of data collection, the sample of firms analyzed, the methods of data analysis, the period of analysis, the operationalization of the variables for CSP, CEP and CFP, the nature of the relationship between CSP/CEP and CFP, the use of moderating and mediating variables. The review shows the need for further studies mainly based on SMEs from non-U.S. countries; the authors also suggest to better base the empirical analysis on consistent theories and to find new multi-dimensional measure for CSP/CEP, considering that a lot of studies are based on ready-made external ratings (e.g. KLD).