Does Corporate Social Responsibility really make a difference? An explorative analysis for Chinese companies

Many studies have been performed to assess the impacts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on the financial performance of companies. There are, however, very few studies that analyze how CSR policies and instruments affect the realization of social and environmental CSR goals, such as the reduction of workplace accidents or CO2 emissions. Therefore, it remains uncertain to what extent CSR really contributes to sustainable development and whether it can serve as an alternative to government regulation to internalize external effects from market operation. The present study provides an explorative empirical analysis that aims to fill this gap. We employ regression analysis on a sample of 109 Chinese companies. The estimation results show that having a code of conduct stimulates the implementation of other organizational CSR instruments, but CSR implementation only partly affects the realization of CSR goals. Having codes of conduct without implementing CSR does not have a significant impact on societal welfare.