Korean executive religiosity and trust: a study of corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance

The first study uses a mediation model to examine the mediating effect of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) attitude of Korean executives on the relationship between their religiosity and CSR behaviour. Using the value-attitude-behaviour (VAB) model, the study examines whether the religiosity of Korean executives is related to their attitude and behaviour towards CSR. The results indicate that the CSR attitude and behaviour of Korean executives are significantly and positively related. The results further show the existence of a most significant relationship between the religiosity and CSR behaviour of Korean executives. The second study uses a moderation model to analyse the relationship between the religiosity and individual social responsibility (ISR) of Korean executives, and their firm’s CSR activities and corporate financial performance (CFP). Previous studies on CSR focus primarily on the analysis of the macro-impacts of CSR activities on CFP. However, this study identifies the need to understand the micro-foundations of the influence of corporate executives’ religiosity on their firm’s CSR activities and CFP. The second study shows that the relationship between the religiosity and ISR of Korean executives is positive. The study also ascertains that the relationship between Korean executives’ ISR and their firm’s CSR activities is positive. Moreover, the study finds that CSR activities are positively related to CFP. The third study uses a moderated mediation model to examine the impact of the trust of Korean executives on their firm’s CSR activities and CFP, which depends on their level of ISR. The results show that the trust of Korean executives is positively related to their firm’s CSR and CFP. Therefore, the findings of the study suggest that the trust of Korean executives is an important mechanism that might affect firm-level CSR and CFP.