Studies on the Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Financial Performance: Modest Role of Media Focus(Case FTSE 100: 2012–2020)

Purpose: In the post-epidemic era, more and more companies are becoming aware of the importance of corporate social responsibility for their own development.However, there is no consensus on the relationship between CSR and financial performance (FP).Design/Methodology/Approach: Using media attention as a moderator, we collected data from companies listed on the FTSE 100 between 2012 and 2020 to determine whether CSR was positively or negatively correlated with financial performance.Following a regression analysis, companies with high CSR performance have high levels of FP.Findings: The higher the media interest in a company, the better its CSR performance.We classified media attention into two categories, according to the type of emotion positive and negative reports.Positive reviews mitigate the positive impact of CSR on financial performance, and negative reviews amplify this positive effect.Practical Implications: These empirical results control for endogeneity and remain robust after using other variable measures.Originality/Value: The results of this white paper complement recent work on linkage modelling and provide insight into the mechanisms of interaction of CSR-FP linkages with implications that will benefit the future sustainability of firms.