Lead Positioning of the Five Philippine Listed Companies’ CSR Practices: An Observation

Abstract

In the realm of financial economics, UNDP-version corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices must go together with corporate financial capacity (CFC). The larger the resources, the better the position corporate entities can serve in CSR. Even though there are relatively adequate references on CSR studies, a number of research projects on how CSR affect CFC is limited, which is the gap of the study. This paper deals with the types of Philippine listed companies’ CSR and CFC. Then it investigates non-parametric relationship between CSR and CFC, and then positions CSR and CFC in a four-quadrant matrix to determine their leadership position in CSR. This study focused on five Philippine listed companies at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE); namely, ALI, EDC, PCOR, SMC group, and ABS. Using a combination of a secondary data research, coupled with a Delphi method, non-parametric statistic and four-quadrant positioning matrix, the study led to the conclusion that most of the CSR practices covered environmental protection, education, livelihood development, relief and rehabilitation projects, and other related community development. The PCOR’s PHP 1 billion HOPE (Help children, Overcome Poverty, through Education) and the EDC’s HELEN projects (Health, Environment, Livelihood and Education) in 2017, to mention some, were apparently some of the successful models. The null hypothesis that there was no significant dependency between CSR and CFC at a ρ = 0.05 and df = 10 was tested. It indicated a certain degree of dependency between the two. Ultimately, the results led to the leadership positioning of ALI, EDC, ABS and SMC, while PCOR as a challenger. The findings are beneficial to the corporate entities and the government for their CSR policy formulation.