CSR, Stakeholders and Financial Performance : Investigating the impact of CSR on financial performance in the European Technology industry

Sammanfattning: Purpose: This study aims to explore the impact of CSR on financial performance in firms located in the European technology industry. The main purpose aims to explain to what extent CSR activities influence financial performance, whilst to also further explain the influence in depth through investigating which CSR activities contribute to the potential impact. Research questions: 1. To what extent does CSR impact financial performance in the European technology industry? 2. Which CSR activities have the most impact on financial performance in the European technology industry?  3. Why does CSR impact financial performance in the European technology industry?  Method: A cross sectional research design was applied in order to collect quantitative data from 2019. Multiple regressions were used to analyze the data and test three hypotheses drawn based on the stakeholder theory.  Conclusion: CRS impacts financial performance both positively and negatively. Governance activities, in particular management activities, have the greatest positive impact, followed by emission reduction and workforce engagement with equal impacts. Community involvement impacts financial performance negatively, to a similar extent as emission reduction and workforce engagement. The positive influences can be explained by the stakeholder theory, suggesting that firms when meeting stakeholder demands of CSR, will benefit through financial gains, due to the obtained strengthened stakeholder relationships.