An empirical analysis of the influences of corporate social responsibility on organizational performance of Taiwan’s construction industry: using corporate image as a mediator

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a hot issue for modern enterprises recently. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships of CSR and organizational performance. The secondary purpose was to determine whether the effect of CSR on organizational performance could be mediated by corporate image. To fulfil the primary purpose, a questionnaire-based survey was used to measure CSR, corporate image and overall organizational performance in Taiwan’s construction industry. Two hundred and eighty-one valid samples were collected and statistically analysed using factor analysis, correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis. The analysis results suggest that CSR is positively correlated with corporate image and organizational performance. Additionally, levels of corporate image are positively associated with organizational performance levels. The results also indicate that corporate image may serve as a mediator between CSR and organizational performance, meaning that companies benefit from investment in CSR realization, even if they also have a positive corporate image.

Keywords:

• Corporate social responsibility
• corporate image
• organizational performance
• hierarchical regression analysis

Acknowledgements

Thanks for the valuable comments from the anonymous experienced reviewers to enrich this article. We also gratefully acknowledged the financial support (NSC100-2221-E-151-050) from Taiwan’s National Science Council for our subsequent research. Finally, we appreciate the long-term support from our research team, especially for Dr Chun-Hsien Lee, Shu-Hao Chang and Chun-Han Lin’s assistance on statistical analysis.