CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AS A SOURCE OF FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM PAKISTAN

Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure (CSRD) Guidelines (2012) constituted by the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan for all listed companies in Pakistan. The purpose of this study is to explore post guidelines effects over firms’ CSRD level as well as CSRD association with financial performance of Pakistan’s automobile sector from 2013- 2019.CSRD has been measured by developing CSRD index (CSRDI) of 45 items from six CSR dimensions (employee, customer, community, environment, energy and investor). Financial performance has been measured by return on assets, return on equity and Tobin’s Q. Study considered firm age, firm size and financial leverage as control variables. After applying panel data regression, findings of the study show an increasing trend in the CSRD level during the study time period except 2019. Study also provides an evidence of significant positive association of CSRD with financial performance with all financial performance measures.