Does Corporate Social Responsibility Lead to Improve in Firm Financial Performance? Evidence from Malaysia

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a common business practices has only recently established a foothold in developing countries. This paper examines the relationship between CSR and Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) for a Malaysia firms. Malaysia was chosen due to it’s one of worlds developing countries and has undergone radical economic and social change. The objective of this research to determine whether CSR based on environment, community, marketplace and workplace dimension has positive, negative or neutral relationship with CFP. The empirical study used to collect secondary data from corporate annual report for three firms listed in Bursa Malaysia for the period from 2007 to 2011. The data taken and gather by using content analysis. CSR dimension of workplace, community, environment and marketplace is used as independent variable while Return on Asset (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROA) is used as dependent variable. Regression analysis used to test the relationship by using SPSS. Prior studies had produce mixed result but most research found there is positive relationship between CSR and CFP. The result of this study concludes that there is positive relationship between CFP and CSR practices together with Firm Size and Firm Revenue as control variable. As well as, this paper will contribute to finance and accounting literature in identified investment in CSR will lead to firm financial performance or otherwise.