Exploring the moderating effects of corporate social responsibility performance under mimetic pressures. An international analysis

Abstract The purpose of this article is threefold. Firstly, it is aimed at ascertaining whether, in seeking social legitimization, companies disclose CSR information as a response to mimetic pressures. Secondly, it ascertains whether, by seeking economic legitimization, companies with superior CSR performance disclose CSR information to differentiate themselves from low‐performing counterparts. Thirdly, it examines the moderating effects of CSR performance in the relationship between mimetic pressures and CSR disclosure, exploring how the social and economic legitimacy influence in tandem the CSR disclosure. The study is based on a sample of 10,395 firm‐year observations coming from 1,993 international companies that released their CSR report in the 2011–2017 timespan. The results, in addition to demonstrating that both mimetic pressures and CSR performance have a positive bearing on the disclosure of CSR information, suggest that the interaction between mimetic pressures and CSR performance has an additive positive effect on CSR disclosure.