Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance : An Event Study Following a CSR Announcement (Responsabilité Sociale et Performance Financière: Une Étude D'Événement à L'Annonce D'un Classement RSE)

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure has now become a key strategy issue for companies, thus raising the question of how CSR information impacts investor behaviour. This paper sets out to examine this topic using social reporting rankings generated by an independent body, the CFIE (Centre Français d'Information des Entreprises). An event study analysis is carried out to measure abnormal returns over the years 2005, 2006 and 2007 for a sample of approximately 50 companies, primarily from the CAC40. The results reveal a market response to the publication of these rankings. The most significant impact is observed, not for high-ranking companies, but for those having risen or regressed the most in rank since the previous year. This illustrates the importance that investors attribute to companies' CSR dynamics