Corporate social responsibility sustainability assurance and firm performance of listed firms in India

Abstract

The study aimed to examine the effect of CSR investment and third-party assurance on firm newlineperformance in the context of an introduced mandatory CSR policy, investigate whether thirdparty newlineassurance and mandatory CSR policy influence the association between community social newlineinitiatives (philanthropic giving and employee volunteerism) and firm performance, explore newlinewhether there is a bi-directional relationship between social inclusion (employee disability and newlinegender diversity) and firm performance and investigate whether sustainability reporting newline(framework and assurance service provider) affect firm behaviour and firm performance. newlineThe study applied panel regression, panel logit regression models, OLS regression models, Sobel- newlineGoodman tests, general methods of moments (GMM), panel fixed effect with instrumental variable newlineregression (FEIV) and probit regression. The models applied on 800 firm-year observations for newlinethe period 2010 to 2019, using Indian stock market as a testing ground. newline