Prior studies assert that social trust may positively influence the economic performance of countries and firms (within those countries). This paper proposes a more nuanced mechanism whereby corporate social responsibility (CSR) mediates the relationship between country-level social trust and firm-level financial performance. Anchored in neo-institutional theory, we theorize that social trust instills norms of trustworthiness and willingness to trust others guiding individual and corporate behaviors. In order to comply with such norms and gain legitimacy, firms in high-trust society are more likely to commit to CSR activities that serve the interests of stakeholders. CSR activities, in turn, can positively influence financial performance by enabling firms to access stakeholders' resources and capabilities and to decrease transactions costs in the stakeholder relationships. We tested our theory by analyzing 9818 firm-year observations across 34 countries, during the 2006 to 2015 period. Our analysis shows the expected CSR mediation in the relationship between social trust and firm-level financial performance. Our findings are robust across different models addressing the concerns of endogeneity, alternative measures, and potential moderators.

中文翻译：

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社会信任如何影响企业财务绩效？企业社会责任的中介作用

先前的研究断言，社会信任可能对国家和公司（在这些国家内）的经济绩效产生积极影响。本文提出了一种更微妙的机制，企业社会责任 (CSR) 可以调节国家层面的社会信任与企业层面的财务绩效之间的关系。以新制度理论为基础，我们认为社会信任灌输了可信赖和愿意信任他人的规范，指导个人和企业行为。为了遵守这些规范并获得合法性，高信任社会中的公司更有可能致力于为利益相关者的利益服务的企业社会责任活动。反过来，企业社会责任活动可以通过使公司获得利益相关者的信息来积极影响财务绩效 资源和能力，并降低利益相关者关系中的交易成本。我们通过分析 2006 年至 2015 年期间 34 个国家/地区的 9818 个公司年度观察结果来检验我们的理论。我们的分析表明，在社会信任与公司层面财务绩效之间的关系中，预期的 CSR 调节作用。我们的研究结果在解决内生性、替代措施和潜在调节因素问题的不同模型中都是稳健的。