CSR awarding: A test of social reputation and impression management

Abstract

Few studies have examined whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement, reporting, and report attributes help companies win awards and whether award winners continue to maintain their CSR efforts after being recognized. We address this gap by conducting an empirical analysis using social reputation, signaling theory, and impression management theory. The logistics regression analysis is based on a sample of 45,840 firm-year observations from various sectors and countries between 2002 and 2019. Our results show that CSR engagement, CSR reporting, external CSR report assurance, and adoption of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines all help companies win awards. Additionally, companies that win awards tend to maintain their commitment to CSR engagement, reporting, third-party CSR report assurance, and GRI adoption after being awarded. This finding implies that CSR-awarded firms do not consider CSR commitment and reporting a tactical commitment but rather a strategic purpose, ruling out the possibility of impression management.