Analyzing the impact of corporate social responsibility on corporate financial performance in covid-19 pandemic period: evidence from CSE listed companies in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The concept of Corporate Social responsibility is an important area to discuss in Sri Lankan corporate sector. Therefore, this study is mainly focused to examine the impact of the Corporate Social Responsibility activities on firm performance on pre and during COVID-19 Pandemic period while considering the four types of CSR activities that will be considering by using the GRI discloser index. The study will develop a CSR scoring model to measure CSR with considering the lack of usage of the GRI guidelines of Listed companies in Sri Lanka. This research will use the return on equity (ROE) and Return on Assets (ROA) to measure the financial performance of the organization. The population of the study is all public listed companies in Colombo Stock Exchange and sample size was 50 companies. Since Sri Lanka had faced with covid 19 during the year 2020 onwards, the analysis will be divided into 2 phases whereby 1st phase will be named as “pre-covid period” from 2015 to 2019 and the 2nd phase will be named as “Post-covid Period” from 2020 and 2021. Data will be analyzed using Descriptive Statistics, Pearson Correlation and Panel Data Regression Analysis. Mean, standard deviation, variance graphs and tables will be used to discuss the findings, according to the descriptive analysis. Regression analysis used for testing the relationship between employee, environmental, social and market corporate social responsibility and firm financial performance. Findings of this research helps to take decisions of the stakeholders of companies in Sri Lanka. Finally, such information will help the investors, decision makers, regulators, policy makers and scholars to improve their knowledge about sustainable reporting practices.