PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to systematise the current state of research on the association between companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement and financial analysts’ company assessment. Additionally, it aims to identify fruitful directions for future research that contribute to a further exploration of the link between CSR and financial analysts.Design/methodology/approachThis study reviews and synthesises existing research on CSR and financial analysts. Based on the research question, “What is the relationship between CSR engagement and financial analysts’ metrics?,” the authors conduct a systematic literature review. The authors search three major databases and use an extensive search term to ensure exhaustive coverage of the field. The paper then systemises the current state of research and identifies knowledge gaps and potential directions for future research.FindingsThe review of existing research shows that several studies confirm a positive link between CSR performance and analyst coverage, suggesting that external monitoring through analysts incentivises companies to enhance their CSR engagement. Further, results indicate that a company’s involvement in “sin” industries is linked to lower analyst coverage. Besides, a higher level of CSR disclosure is positively associated with analyst forecast accuracy, thus indicating that the provision of CSR-related information is linked to an enhanced information environment. High levels of CSR performance are associated with more positive recommendations from analysts. However, recent surveys and interview studies on analysts’ perceptions of CSR fail to uniformly support an increasing interest in CSR.Research limitations/implicationsFor a better understanding of the link between CSR engagement and financial analysts, two fruitful directions for future research are observed. First, future research designs should clearly differentiate between CSR disclosure and CSR performance and take account of interdependencies between them. Second, studies should address behavioural insights into how analysts process information and the influence of individual analyst characteristics on the link between CSR engagement and an analyst’s assessment of a company.Originality/valueThis study is the first to review the literature on the relationship between CSR and financial analysts. The association between CSR and financial analysts is particularly interesting given the pivotal role financial analysts play as information intermediaries in financial markets. This study delivers an in-depth understanding of existing studies and their theoretical underpinnings. Based on the existing literature, this paper develops innovative directions for future research.

A huge body of research has addressed the impact of corporate social performance (CSP) on corporate financial performance. However, prior literature provides only limited evidence of the impact of CSP on firm risk. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of CSP operationalized by environmental, social, and governance factors on market-based firm risk in Europe. Three risk measures are analyzed: systematic, idiosyncratic, and total risk. On the basis of a large European panel dataset of 8752 firm-year observations covering the period 2002–2014, we find that a higher CSP decreases total and idiosyncratic risk. Looking at the three dimensions of CSP, we show that social performance has a significantly negative effect on all three risk measures. Environmental performance generally decreases idiosyncratic risk, whereas total risk and systematic risk are only affected in environmentally sensitive industries. In contrast, we cannot detect a significant effect of corporate governance performance on firm risk. Our findings suggest that a higher CSP and a higher performance regarding the social dimension in particular have the potential to increase firm value through lower firm risk. Overall, our evidence fosters the assumption that there is a business case to be made for corporate social responsibility.

Dieser Band stellt die Auswirkungen des Integrated Reportings auf die Steuerung, Überwachung und Berichterstattung von Unternehmen praxisorientiert vor: Von der Konzeption und Umsetzung (insb. auf Basis des neuen IIRC-Frameworks) über die Überwachung durch maßgebliche Kontroll-, Prüfungs- und Aufsichtsinstanzen bis zum Einfluss des Integrated Reportings auf Informationspolitik und Unternehmensanalyse. Ein fundierter und praxisorientierter Überblick zu aktuellen Gestaltungsfragen und Herausforderungen!

Die Controlling - Zeitschrift für erfolgsorientierte Unternehmenssteuerung liefert Monat für Monat fundierte und anwendungsorientierte Fachbeiträge für das Management sowie das Finanz- und Rechnungswesen in Unternehmen. Klar gegliedert und strukturiert werden für alle Controlling-Bereiche die Faktoren für eine erfolgreiche Unternehmenssteuerung aufgezeigt.