Cavaco and Crifo (2010)

Cavaco, Sandra, and Patricia Crifo.  “The CSR-firm performance missing link: complementarity between environmental, social and business behavior criteria?”  Working paper (University Paris II Pantheon-Assas and CPP, Aarhus School of Business), June 7, 2010.

From the authors' abstract:  "[We propose] a theoretical model and [test] empirically its main predictions on a matched panel database for the biggest European listed firms over the 2002-2007 period. Our dataset gathers...(ESG) ratings from the Vigeo database and economic and financial performance data from the Orbis database. Using System GMM estimator for dynamic panel data model, we test the complementarity and substitutability, that is the super- and sub- modularity between various corporate social responsibility practices, and its impact on firm performance. We do observe that there exists a complementarity premium on specific CSR dimensions (human resources and business behavior towards customers and suppliers) but also that some combinations are relative substitutes (environment and business behavior)."

Link:  https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1636868