Do Strategic Orientations and CSR Disclosures Affect Investment Efficiency? Evidence from Textual Analysis in Emerging Markets

Zabihollah Rezaee and Javad Rajabalizadeh ()
Additional contact information
Zabihollah Rezaee: Crews School of Accountancy, Fogelman College of Business and Economics, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA
Javad Rajabalizadeh: Department of Accounting and Finance, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland

JRFM, 2025, vol. 18, issue 10, 1-30

Abstract: This study explores how firms’ strategic orientations—operational efficiency, customer intimacy, and product innovation—along with corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure, influence investment efficiency in emerging markets. Using 1594 firm-year observations from companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) between 2015 and 2024, we combine quantitative analysis with textual evidence from Management Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) reports. The findings show that operational efficiency and customer intimacy are generally linked to lower investment efficiency, reflecting possible resource misallocation and short-term priorities. In contrast, product innovation has a more nuanced impact: it improves investment efficiency in R&D-intensive sectors and during stable economic periods. CSR disclosure is also negatively associated with investment efficiency, suggesting that while CSR reporting enhances legitimacy and stakeholder trust, it may shift managerial attention and resources away from core investments. Robustness checks—including firm fixed effects, alternative keyword dictionaries, placebo tests, and endogeneity controls—support these results. Additional sub-sample analyses indicate that strategic orientations and CSR disclosure also function as channels of financial innovation: operational efficiency fosters disciplined resource allocation, product innovation supports sustainable growth, and customer intimacy strengthens transparency and stakeholder engagement.

Keywords: strategic orientations; CSR disclosure; investment efficiency; operational excellence; customer intimacy; product leadership; textual analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C E F2 F3 G (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/18/10/535/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/18/10/535/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:18:y:2025:i:10:p:535-:d:1756678

Access Statistics for this article

JRFM is currently edited by Ms. Chelthy Cheng

More articles in JRFM from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().