Improving CSR performance of food processing firms with operational risks: does digital investment matter?

Purpose Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has emerged as a prominent public concern; however, within the agricultural sector, many firms demonstrate unsatisfactory performance in terms of CSR activities. Drawing upon the behavioral theory of the firm, this study aims to investigate how operational risks faced by agriculture-related firms affect its CSR practices. Design/methodology/approach Using a data of 136 Chinese food processing firms with 909 observations from 2011 to 2021, this study constructs the fixed-effect model to analyze the relationship among operational risks, digital investment and CSR practices. Findings The empirical evidence shows that competition risk significantly improves CSR performance while financial risk hinders it. The results of moderation analysis further reveal that digital investment strengthens the positive effect of competition risk and the negative effect of financial risk, although the latter is not statistically significant. Originality/value Overall, by establishing a link between operational risks and CSR practices, this study contributes to clarifying decision-making rules for food processing firms and deepening the understanding of why and when they adopt social responsibility initiatives.