CSR performance and firm performance in the tourism, healthcare, and financial sectors: Do metrics and CSR committees matter?

The purpose of this study is twofold. First, it tests the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and firm performance in the tourism, healthcare, and financial sectors. Second, it investigates whether CSR committees moderate this association in those sectors. To achieve these objectives, two proxies for CSR performance namely CSR performance and change in CSR performance are utilized. Moreover, firm performance is measured by three dimensions: market-based, accounting-based, and sales-based performance. The data for the three sectors were retrieved from the Thomson Reuters Eikon database from 2011 to 2018. While the financial sector generates firm value out of CSR performance per se, the tourism and healthcare sectors cannot. It is imperative to establish CSR committees among tourism firms to enhance firm value from CSR practices, since CSR performance and change in CSR performance per se do not generate value unless CSR performance interacts with the CSR committee. Moreover, the interaction of CSR committees with change in CSR performance does not generate value in either sector, which may imply that stockholders are satisfied with the current level of CSR engagement. Unlike the tourism sector, CSR committees cannot currently contribute to achieving higher market value in the healthcare and financial sectors. The conclusions concerning other performance metrics (profitability and sales) for the three sectors are outlined in the conclusion section. The study provides an opportunity for the three sectors to leverage CSR for firm performance improvement and presents refined guidelines that employ different firm performance measurements and CSR metrics.