Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Commerce - Department of Business Administration

The current study has aimed at assessing the business case of Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) in the Egyptian context. The period covered years 2007 through 2010 using financial information and CSR data set of 48 companies listed in the S&P EGX ESG index during the period. The independent variables are CSR quantitative index scores for Governance, Environment, Employee, Community, and Customer CSR dimensions whereas the dependent variables are ROA, ROE, EPS, and Stock Return SR. Panel data analysis in Multiple Regression using GMM and Granger Causality are employed through Eviews statistical package. Results have brought evidence of the measurable payoff of CSR to corporations in the Egyptian Context. Both short and long-term tangible benefits could be demonstrated and the firm{u2019}s ultimate objective could be achieved when CSR is intertwined with the firm{u2019}s strategy. Generally firms are considering multiple stakeholders where the main stakeholder group ultimately gains when expectations of all stakeholders are jointly maintained. Whereas the environmental impact tends to agree more to the neoclassical economic theory (ROA, ROE, EPS), a change in each of the employee relations, Community, and Customer/Product would causally determine a change in the firm{u2019}s financial performance on the long term which is in line with both the stakeholder and the good management theories. Although Governance shows a foothold in determining stock prices, the panel causality results suggest that it is more derived from the firm slack resources than determining them. The study also reveals that larger firms perform better financially and socially and the predictive power of CSR over CFP is generally greater in leveraged and larger companies based on (ROE, EPS) and in newer companies as per (ROA) accounting measures while it is externally demonstrated in smaller companies as per (SR). The study contributes to the literature of CSR/Sustainability as well as the intangible determinants of stock prices and corporate profitability. Also it has other practical implications to policy makers, managers, boards, investors, and the community at large

Issued also as CD