Corporate social responsibility news and stock performance : a systematic literature review

Despite widespread agreement that corporate social responsibility (CSR) should not be motivated only by a desire to increase corporate financial performance (CFP), marketers are aware of the possible links between CSR and CFP. Surprisingly, after decades of empirical investigation, the evidence on whether and how CSR affects CFP has still not reached a consensus. One possible reason for the conflicting results is the complex and multifaceted nature of the CSR-CFP link. Consequently, this paper takes a more fine-grained approach by looking at the relationship between CSR news and stock prices to understand the boundary conditions in which CSR news affects CFP. Our systematic literature review covers six decades and reveals that the first CSR news and stock price research dates back to 1996. Analyzing the extant body of research, we offer state-of-the-art insights on the CSR-CFP relationship and an agenda for future research on this important topic.