دانلود رایگان مقاله لینک کردن مسئولیت اجتماعی و اقتصادی با عملکرد مالی

Abstract

The research conducted in this study focuses on the role of a company's innovation culture in linking economic and social responsibilities with financial performance. Specifically, our study addresses the following two questions: Does innovation trigger the simultaneous development of both economic and social dimensions of corporate social responsibility? Does the simultaneous pursuit of economic and social responsibilities result in a higher financial performance? These questions are examined through an empirical investigation of 133 companies, belonging to the Spanish Social Environmental Agreement, using structural equation modelling validated by factor analysis. The results indicate that, although companies are using innovation outcomes to support both economic and social achievements, they are only taking advantage effectively of economic achievements to obtain a higher financial performance.

6. Conclusions

There is a dearth of empirical studies of the relationship between the support for innovation in SMEs, the balancing of economic and social objectives and financial performance. This study highlights the importance of the company's capacity to innovate as a prior step to the implementation of CSR policies for achieving a higher financial performance in a regional turbulent context. Results indicate that the balance between the economic and social dimensions of CSR may be facilitated by innovative outputs. For instance, innovative tools and channels of communication allow stakeholders (e.g. managers and customers) to share resources with each other and facilitate the gathering of feedback. Such feedback will result in fine tuning of activities and policies relating to CSR that will likely result in improved financial performance. Our results support the proposition that most of the companies analyzed in this study are using innovations outcomes to support both the economic and social dimensions of CSR but they only take advantage effectively of the economic dimension of CSR. This finding is important in the on-going debate of the importance of innovation to the achievement of CSR goals and objectives. The implication of above results for management practice is that the achievement of innovative outputs is a key factor when considering the achievement of social and economic objectives. The existence of innovative outputs allows internal stakeholders to hear what other people say, act on, and profit from opportunities to improve their relationships with external stakeholders through the design and adoption of new devices, processes or structures that enable social innovation to happen. In addition, these results highlight a new and interesting direction for future research, as they are supportive of that the company's capacity to innovate may help to balance the conflicting demands of stakeholder groups. This is an important finding, as most prior studies addressing the importance of innovation have established innovation as an important beneficial outcome rather than as a precondition for the successful achievement of CSR goals and objectives (Little, 2006). It is also important to note that the indirect effect of the existence of innovation on financial performance via the social dimension of CSR is statistically insignificant. This means that the availability of an innovation at a given time necessarily does not mean that the organization will take full advantage of social benefits that may be derived from its use.