企業的社會責任行為可以改善財務績效嗎？－－以英國FTSE社會責任指數為例

DOES CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IMPROVE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE EVIDENCE FROM FTSE GOOD UK INDEX

本文評估公司承擔企業社會責任(corporate social responsibility)是否有助於改善財務績效。既有實證文獻在比較社會責任企業與非社會責任企業的績效相對高低時，並未達到「其他條件相同」的要求，因此分析的結果受到兩組樣本之間特性變數的差異性所扭曲，面臨樣本選擇偏誤(selection bias)的問題。本文將FTSE All-share指數中被收錄於英國FTSE社會責任指數的成份股定義為社會責任企業，未被收錄者定義為非社會責任企業，應用Rubin(1973)、Rosenbaum and Rubin(1983, 1985a, 1985b)所發展的配對方法(matching method)，根據特性變數是否相近為依據進行樣本配對，進而分析配對後的兩組樣本的財務績效差異，降低既有文獻中的選擇偏誤。實證結果找不到社會責任企業的平均績效優於非社會責任企業的證據；相反地，部分的證據顯示社會責任企業的財務績效相對較低，因此我們的分析結果傾向支持焦點移轉假說，社會責任行為對財務績效的影響效果為負。

In this paper, we examine the effect of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on firm financial performance (CSR-effect). Two competing hypotheses, social impact hypothesis and shift of focus hypothesis, are proposed to investigate this issue; the former suggests that CSR has a positive relation with performance and the latter the opposite. To ensure the CSR-effect is not contaminated by other factors and to ensure the sample is randomly drawn, we employ four matching methods, Nearest, Caliper, Mahala and Mahala Caliper to match the characteristics of the firms with CSR (CSR-firms) and without CSR (NonCSRfirms). Although the four methods yield slightly different results, to our surprise, firms engaging in CSR activities obtain lower values on the return on assets, return on equity, return on sales and earnings per share. Therefore, CSR at the very least does not improve the firm performance, supporting the shift of focus hypothesis. Engaging in CSR activities leads to more pain than gain, at least in the short run.