Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: A Snapshot from the Lodging and Gaming Industries

This study examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance for a sample of lodging and gaming companies. The study attempts to answers the question: do lodging and gaming companies ranked highly on CSR initiatives outperform their counterparts that are not highly ranked? The study utilizes data of publicly traded US hospitality firms obtained from the CRSP and Mergent databases. The study also uses the Fortune CSR ranking survey for hotels and casinos. The findings suggest that lodging and gaming firms with well executed CSR initiatives have higher profit margins and higher return on equity than the rest of sampled firms. Future studies should examine CSR and financial data for multiple years as well as the types of CSR initiatives that lead to better financial performance in the hospitality industry. Further explorations can be carried out by utilizing multiple accounting, CSR and market measures as well as by examining a diversity of companies since more is likely to be revealed when variables such as leverage and business structure are subjected to further scrutiny.