Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the nonlinear relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and economic policy uncertainty (EPU).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses panel regression techniques to examine a sample consisting of UK-listed non-financial companies during 2000–2018.

Findings

The authors found that EPU increases corporate social responsibility which suggests that firms become more socially proactive during the period of heightened EPU. Such countermeasure enhances CSP and is likely a part of a competitive strategy and an insurance mechanism to protect firms against uncertainty in long-term. Further analysis shows a nonlinear relationship between the two factors, suggesting that in a heightened uncertain business environment, the insurance benefit generated by CSP is neutralised by the corresponding cost and, therefore, the positive relationship between EPU and CSP reverses.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to find a nonlinear relationship between CSP and EPU, indicating that too much uncertainty in macroeconomic policies deteriorates the benefits of CSP to the point that the CSP – EPU relationship becomes negative. The results suggest that policy uncertainty has both the bright side and the dark side where too many cooks eventually spoil the broth.

中文翻译：

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政策不确定性的阴暗面：厨师太多会破坏肉汤吗？

目的

本文旨在研究企业社会绩效（CSP）与经济政策不确定性（EPU）之间的非线性关系。

设计/方法/方法

本文使用面板回归技术来检验由 2000 年至 2018 年期间在英国上市的非金融公司组成的样本。

发现

作者发现 EPU 增加了企业的社会责任，这表明企业在 EPU 提高期间变得更加积极主动。这种对策增强了 CSP，并且可能是竞争战略和保险机制的一部分，以保护公司免受长期不确定性的影响。进一步分析表明，这两个因素之间存在非线性关系，表明在高度不确定的商业环境中，CSP 产生的保险收益被相应的成本抵消，因此 EPU 和 CSP 之间的正相关关系逆转。

原创性/价值

本文首次发现了 CSP 与 EPU 之间的非线性关系，表明宏观经济政策的太多不确定性使 CSP 的收益恶化到 CSP-EPU 关系变为负值的地步。结果表明，政策的不确定性既有好的一面，也有坏的一面，太多厨师最终会破坏肉汤。