earticle

영어

This article analyzes the effect of sustaining Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on relationship between earnings persistence and firm value. Most of the previous studies focused on characteristics of companies to which opened 200 companies data measured by Korea Economic Justice Institute (KEJI) Index value. But this studies extended that unknown all companies analyzed by KEJI. If sustaining CSR increases some expenditures in a short-term period but increases financial performances after a certain period of time. The purpose of this study is to test the impact of sustaining CSR on financial performance and firm value in a short-term and long-term period of time. Based on the argument that CSR would play the role of mitigating conflicts between firm and firms environment, we hypothesized that sustaining CSR would enhance the firms earnings persistence and financial performance / firm value. Specifically, the firms with higher CSR performance are predicted to have higher profitability, lower cost of capital, and higher firm values than those with lower CSR performance. These hypotheses were tested using 257 Korean firms over eight-year period (2001～2008). Findings of this study are as follows:First, firms that sustaining CSR activities improve the firm’s financial performance and corporate values. We are able to verify that firms with consistent CSR activities have better financial performance as well as performance of CSR activities measured by KEJI index value. Second, firms that perform their sustaining CSR activities have a better future management performance than firms with irregular CSR activities. The evidence shows that sustaining CSR firms has a positive relationship with financial performance measured by ROA and Tobin’s Q ratios. Third, CEO’s that the firms with higher and sustaining CSR performance exhibit better financial performance as measured by return on asset (profitability) and Tobin’s Q (firm value). Fourth, the conclusions of this study suggest that the sustaining voluntary CSR activities may increase the value of the firm and the shareholders together. In the case of firm’s with irregular CSR activities, the positive impact of CSR on financial performance was not effective. These imply that CSR activity causes to increase some expenditures to firm’s in short-time but in long-time it gives an economic incentive to firm’s which have done CSR continuously. In addition, having an active and sustaining CSR policies is beneficial for their firms to increase competitive advantages in a long-term period of time. The analysis on how the level of CSR effects on the firm value shows that the value of the published 200 companies of KEJI is lower than that of other companies generally. It means that the higher the level of CSR causes the higher firm value in the group of KEJI 200. This means that the assessment of the capital market on CSR is affirmative more than in the group of 200 companies of KEJI. The results also shows that CSR performance has a positive effect on firm value (ROA) and the firm’s sustainability. These findings mean that CSR performance become different with the earnings persistence and economic conditions, and the CSR performance could be used as a forecast indicator of the firm’s sustainability. However, these results are robust across different measures of variables and testing methodologies. Finally, study results in detail are reported along with implications derived and discussed. Limitations and future directions of the study are also addressed.

한국어

본 연구는 기업의 CSR의 지속성과 이익지속성과의 관계, 나아가 CSR과 기업 가치와의 관계를 검증하였다. 그 결과 기업의 CSR과 이익의 지속성이 기업 가치에 긍정적인 영향을 미친다는 가설을 지지한다는 것을 확인하여 기업실무에 시사점을 제공한다고 할 수 있을 것이다. 또한, 선행연구와 달리 표본범위를 공표된 200위는 물론 조사된 모든 자료로 확대함에 따라 자료의 신뢰도를 높인 것이라 사료된다. CSR활동의 지속성 여부에 따라 기업이익의 지속성과 관련이 있다는 결과로 볼 때 경영자가 기업 가치에 중요한 요소로 작용하는 이익의 지속성을 위해 지속적이고도 적극적인 CSR활동을 수행하여 기업 가치를 높이려할 것이기 때문에 사회적으로도 소망스런 일이 될 것으로 판단된다. 기업의 회계정보 이용시 CSR활동을 참고하는 것이 기업의 정보 이용을 더욱 유용하게 할 수 있을 것으로 사료된다. 이에 기업의 지속가능성이나 경쟁우위의 원천으로서 CSR을 인식하는 적극적인 태도전환이 필요하며, 이벤트성 CSR활동이 아닌 체계적이고 지속적인 CSR 관련 전략경영체계 수립이 절실하다고 할 것이다. 나아가 CSR에 대한 국제 규범화는 물론 국내에서도 관련 규정의 입법이나 기존 법률의 개정을 통해 투명경영을 통한 기업의 성장과 존속 자체가 가장 기본적인 사회적 책임이라는 인식제고, 지속가능경영보고서 발간 등 사회적 책임 관련 정보의 공개 강제 및 비 재무정보에 관한 가이드라인과 평가기준의 개발은 물론, 기업의 사회적 책임을 강제하는 방향으로만 치우치지 말고 세제혜택을 포함한 다양한 인센티브제도를 동시에 고려하는 적극적인 입법 활동이 필요하다고 본다.