Does firm strategy influence corporate social responsibility and firm performance? Evidence from the tourism industry

In this study, we explore whether cost leaders and differentiators assume different positions in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement. Furthermore, we deepen the investigation by examining whether shareholders appreciate cost leaders or differentiators' CSR engagement which bears implications for the firms and stockholders. The data concerning CSR, firm strategy, and board characteristics for all the companies belonging to the hospitality, tourism, and airline industry between 2013 and 2019 was fetched from Thomson Reuters, and fixed-effects panel regression analysis and Hayes’s moderation analysis methodology are executed. The findings indicate, first, that cost leadership is significantly associated with composite CSR performance and governance performance but not with environmental and social performance. Second, differentiation is significantly associated with composite CSR performance and environmental and social performance but not with governance performance. Third, moderation analysis revealed that cost leadership does not moderate the association between CSR performance in all dimensions and firm value, differentiation moderates the association between CSR performance in all dimensions and firm value negatively.