Corporate social responsibility as the basis of innovative development of modern companies: literature review and empirical study from Ukraine

During several decades corporate social responsibility (CSR) has passed a long way from the theoretical concept of several scientists and entrepreneurs to the integrative part of the activity of the large business. Being a contemporary and innovative strategy CSR has already recommended itself as an effective tool for the positive overall perception of the company by stakeholders and consumers. However, the direct economic impact of CSR e.g. its relationship with corporate financial performance still remains unclear. Thereby this article summarizes the long discussion about the influence of CSR on the corporate financial performance (CFP) and shows the current state of CSR in the largest companies of the Ukrainian market. The main purpose of the research is to estimate the role of corporate social responsibility in the innovative development and international diversification of the companies regarding their corporate financial performance by analyzing most relevant publications and main economic indicators of the largest national and international companies of the Ukrainian market. Consequently, the object of the study is CSR in the world and in Ukraine. The article comprises of two-part – theoretical and empirical. For the theoretical analysis literature review was performed via Google Scholar search tool by key words connected to CSR; empirical analysis of the CSR levels in Ukrainian companies included 100 largest firms according to Top-200 Ukraine 2017. Two indicators were estimated – the presence of the information on theirs official web-pages about CSR/sustainable development programs and the presence of the annual or periodical (several years) reports about CSR/sustainable development programs. After the exclusion of 12 enterprises with state ownership and 5 without relevant information, 83 companies composed 2 study groups: #1 – TNCs and their subsidiaries, – 21 companies, and #2 – other, – 62 companies. Moving to the results literature review showed that up to date a bigger part of the evidence declares the positive CSR and CFP. However, still, some studies failed to confirm this correlation thus issues about this relationship remains partly uncertain. Nevertheless, all authors admitted that today CSR is one of the basic components of developmental strategies. The empirical study of the largest Ukrainian companies showed that levels of CSR significantly differs between TNCs with subsidiaries and national large business (p=000,5) with higher levels in the first group. That means that CSR could be considered as an integral part of innovative management and international diversification of a firm. This article highlights one of the few studies about the current state of CSR in Ukraine, emphasized the important direction of further research in the field of corporate social responsibility in Ukraine. In spite of the scientific role, the results of this research may be useful for specialists in strategic planning, CEO's, financial