CSR Actions and Financial Distress: Do Firms Change Their CSR Behavior When Signals of Financial Distress Are Identified?

Many studies have focused on the relation between financial and economic performance of firms and their actions on corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, few of them analyze CSR actions of firms facing decline. The purpose of this paper is to analyze if a recognized situation of financial distress has an impact on CSR strategies and modifies the attitude of a set of firms towards responsible behavior. We use CSR information of healthy and distressed US firms, during the years 2001-2007, to evidence feasible changes in CSR attitudes induced by distress position. The results show that healthy firms present changes in all the year windows analyzed while distressed firms tend to increase their concern valuation or reduce their strength valuation one year after identifying the symptoms of economic and financial weaknesses. However, these differences do not occur in all the dimensions of CSR, when considered separately.