CSR and Innovation: Two Sides of the Same Coin

In this chapter, we analyze the association between CSR and innovation. We state that CSR concept has evolved over time and has changed the way innovation is conceived. The state of art shows that CSR activities have been responsively introduced to achieve the stakeholders’ needs and standards, to become gradually more strategic activities. In fact, many firms have been involved in CSR projects dealing with the reputation enhancement, the stakeholders’ reciprocation, the risk mitigation, and the improvement of the innovation capacity mechanisms. We show the presence of a virtuous dynamic between strategic CSR and innovation: firms have to present strategic CSR activities in the core of their innovative strategies. Sustainable innovations are effective tools to foster CSR activities and, therefore, social performance. Furthermore, we show that the CSR-innovation influence is driven by specific channels such as the company’s competitiveness, strategies’ developments, and framework. Besides, we shed light on the effects of board diversity, managerial cognition, and corporate cognitive-governance on CSR-innovation association. Finally, we provide an empirical evidence from the SBF120 French companies over the period from 2010 to 2016. We present the nonlinear effect of innovation on the current CSR scores, using a semi-parametric estimation. Our results confirm the divers perception of CSR and its components at the different innovation levels