When CSR Meets Audit Expertise: Examining the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance, considering the interactive role of audit committee expertise, in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In this study, corporate social responsibility and audit committee expertise are considered independent variables, while financial performance is considered the dependent variable. To this end, 145 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange were examined over the period from 2019 to 2024. After selecting the sample and collecting the required data, the research variables were calculated. Finally, the Chow and Hausman tests were employed to analyze the data and test the research hypotheses. The results of the hypothesis tests indicated that corporate social responsibility has a direct and significant relationship with financial performance. The results of the second hypothesis showed that corporate social responsibility does not have a significant relationship with financial performance in companies with highly specialized audit committees. In other words, due to the absence of a significant relationship between audit committee expertise and financial performance, audit committee expertise also neutralizes the direct relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial performance.