Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is becoming an implicit norm for businesses. However, its' implication for business performance is still a matter of debate. Recently scholars have started distinguishing between the focus of specific CSR actions and have favored the strategic focus over the moral or altruistic focus of such actions. Despite the theoretical advances for the argument, that strategically planned, performance oriented CSR actions are better for firms than morally driven ones, the empirical evidence is scarce. This dissertation addresses the gap in the literature and aims to investigate the influence of CSR actions and firm performance for strategically motivated versus altruistically motivated firms. Further, this dissertation uses the concept of corporate social performance (CSP) as proposed by Wood (1991) that includes CSR actions and corporate social responsiveness. A model of antecedents and outcomes of corporate social performance is proposed. Using a two group analysis, this dissertation examines the differences in antecedents and performance outcomes of CSR actions for the strategically motivated vs. altruistically motivated firms. Also, market performance is proposed to be the key mediator between CSR actions and financial performance. Results of this study indicate that strategically motivated actions are infact superior to altruistically motivated actions in terms of driving business performance. CSR actions of strategically motivated firms positively influence financial performance and this relationship is partially mediated by market performance. For altruistically driven firms, CSR actions have no influence on market or business performance. With respect to antecedents, social pressures are found to be the most salient driver of CSR actions for both groups. CSR actions of strategically motivated firms, however, are also influenced by competitive pressures. Also, innovation oriented firms engage in CSR actions with due to strategic motivations and are proactive in monitoring and adapting their CSR actions according to the changing market demands (corporate social responsiveness). Findings of this study support the argument that CSR actions should be adopted based on their relevance to overall business objective and their ability to drive long term profitability. This dissertation concludes with theoretical and managerial implications, and suggests direction for future research.
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