Corporate social responsibility, industry competition and firm productive efficiency: evidence from semi-parametric and non-parametric analysis

Taher Hamza (), Hamza Nizar and Faten Lakhal
Additional contact information
Taher Hamza: EM Normandie Business School, Metis Lab
Hamza Nizar: IHEC-University of Carthage
Faten Lakhal: Research Center

Annals of Operations Research, 2025, vol. 347, issue 1, No 22, 553-578

Abstract: Abstract This study examines whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) improves firm productive efficiency and highlights the role of product market competition in addressing agency conflicts associated with CSR. Using a sample of French firms from 2008 to 2018, we estimate firm productive efficiency through a semi-parametric and non-parametric methods (Data Envelopment Analysis—DEA). The results show that CSR positively affects firm productive efficiency supporting the instrumental stakeholder theory. We also find that the positive effect of CSR on firm productive efficiency is more prevalent among firms operating in highly competitive environments and standing out high governance quality. These findings suggest that agency problems related to CSR are less likely in firms subject to high external and internal control. These findings have several practical implications and may provide valuable insights in particular to the French National Productivity Council, which has been actively investigating the primary catalysts of firm productivity in France.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; Firm productive efficiency; Product market competition; Stakeholder theory; Corporate Governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10479-023-05683-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:annopr:v:347:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1007_s10479-023-05683-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/10479

DOI: 10.1007/s10479-023-05683-x

Access Statistics for this article

Annals of Operations Research is currently edited by Endre Boros

More articles in Annals of Operations Research from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().