A Multi-Theoretical Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Financial Sustainability: Towards an Integrated Conceptual Model

Abstract

Abstract

The relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial sustainability (CFS) remains theoretically fragmented. This paper addresses that gap by proposing a multi-theoretical conceptual framework integrating stakeholder theory, agency theory, the resource-based view, signaling theory, and institutional theory to explain how five CSR dimensions affect CFS through specified mediating and moderating pathways. Drawing on a critical synthesis of seminal theoretical works and contemporary empirical literature, the framework encompasses one dependent variable (CFS), five independent variables (environmental CSR, social CSR, governance quality, CSR disclosure transparency, and CSR strategic integration), three mediators (corporate reputation, cost of equity capital, and stakeholder trust), three moderators (board independence, institutional ownership, and national regulatory environment), and four control variables. Eleven falsifiable propositions are advanced. The CSR–CFS relationship operates through distinct, theoretically grounded pathways: corporate reputation and stakeholder trust transmit value-creation effects, while reduced cost of equity capital constitutes the capital-market channel. Board independence, institutional ownership, and regulatory stringency function as amplifying boundary conditions. As a conceptual paper, empirical validation via longitudinal, multi-country panel data is required. The framework’s originality lies in its theoretically pluralist, variable-explicit architecture that rejects single-theory reductionism and specifies testable transmission mechanisms for CSR–CFS scholarship.