How historical and social aspirations reshape the relationship between corporate financial performance and corporate social responsibility

Integrating the behavioral theory of the firm into the discussion on why firms behave in socially responsible ways, the study here develops and empirically tests hypotheses articulating when and how past corporate financial performance (CFP) might lead to more or less engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR). Rather than treating historical and social aspirations as comparable performance benchmarks that yield similar behavioral responses, as most prior studies do, these two modes of performance comparison may induce signals that executives interpret differently, and therefore may lead to conflicting firm responses towards CSR initiatives. Using panel data pertaining to a large sample of U.S. firms, the study finds that historical and social performance comparisons have differential effects on CSR engagement. The findings describe how different interpretations of achievement influence firm’s engagement in secondary activities concerning environmental and social issues—a topic that has received very little attention in prior empirical research.