Doing safe while doing good: Slack, risk management capabilities, and the reliability of value creation through CSR

When can corporate social responsibility become a reliable strategic asset? There is a scarcity of both theoretical arguments and empirical evidence investigating the trade-off between the risk and return of corporate social responsibility. We intend to fill this gap by (1) investigating corporate social responsibility’s simultaneous impact on firm value and the reliability of this impact and (2) exploring the conditions under which corporate social responsibility’s impact on firm value becomes more or less reliable. The presented findings suggest that corporate social responsibility by itself is an unreliable value enhancer, in that it not only increases firm value but also increases the variance of expected value distribution. Yet, the impact of corporate social responsibility on firm value becomes more reliable when a firm has immediately redeployable slack or when a firm has stronger risk management capabilities. This research provides practical implications to managers and investors regarding the riskiness of corporate social responsibility investments and strategies for mitigating such risks.