Does CSR reporting destroy firm value? Empirical Evidence on GRI-aligned European firms

Kurzfassung/Abstract

In this paper, we analyse how corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in alignment with the global reporting initiative (GRI) affects the firm value of EUROSTOXX 600 firms. GRI currently provides the most widely applied CSR reporting framework. In contrast to prior studies, we use standardized defined application levels of GRI in order to reduce the effect of subjective aspects. The firm value is measured by Tobin's q. Qur findings show that the highest level of GRI-aligned reporting (GRI A+) has a negative and statistically significant influence on firm value. However, this effect is only statistically significant for smaller or less profitabele firms. These results may reflect the high costs of implementing GRI A+-level reporting for such firms, which may in turn raise doubts among investors concerning the seriousness of a firm's CSR strategy, which chooses to adhere to formal reporting standards instead of allowing the organic growth of a responsibility culture. At least in such cases CSR reporting does indeed distroy firm value.