The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on the Financial Performance of Listed Companies in Thailand

This study aims to: (1) investigate the amount of corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSR) spending, awards, and activities of listed companies in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and in the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI); (2) test the impact of CSR spending, awards, and financial performance activities; and (3) examine the amount of CSR spending, awards, and activities between companies with and without a CSR committee. The sample included all the listed companies in the resource industry from the SET and the MAI. The data were collected from the companies' annual reports from 2015 to 2019. Descriptive analysis, an independent-sample t-test, a correlation matrix, and an unbalanced panel data analysis were used to analyze the data. The average level of spending per activity was 2.2964 million baht. There were, on average, 2.1741 awards and 11.4178 activities during the studied period. Moreover, there was a significant negative impact of CSR spending, and a positive impact of CSR awards and activities, on corporate financial performance. Finally, there was a significantly different amount of CSR spending, awards, and activities between the companies with and without a CSR committee. The findings of this study demonstrate that legitimacy theory can be used to explain the benefit of CSR to Thai-listed companies, although CSR is still a voluntary corporate responsibility in Thailand.