Kan relationen mellan CSR och lönsamhet stödja svenska finansbolags undermåliga samhällsansvar? - En kvantitativ studie med beaktning av endogenitetsproblemet
Introduction: The concept of CSR was first coined in the 1950?s and refers to corporate vol-untary work to contribute to a sustainable society. In Sweden, companies within the finance sector are among the worst when it comes to implementing CSR in their daily work. The debate on whether companies should engage in CSR activities or not, is extremely relevant nowadays. Right now we are facing a time where the demand on companies to take their social responsi-bility becomes more intensified. Power within firms and investment capital are transmitted to-wards people born at the same time as the breakthrough of CSR. These are all factors that we consider as a background of why the issue of CSR within companies can be seen as so important right now. It motivates us to study the subject. At the same time the most essential question remains. Is CSR profitable or not? As long as the question is not answered the Swedish com-panies within the financial sector, who aims for short term profits, will continue to ask them-selves if and how much they should invest in CSR.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate if there is a relationship, and what such a relationship would look like, between CSR and the profitability of Swedish companies within the financial sector. In a broader perspective, the aim of the study was to see if the lack of corporate responsibility can be supported from a financial stand point or if CSR rather can be profitable to financial companies.Method: We used an instrumental variable regression when we tried to answer the question of the existence of a correlation between CSR and profitability. We used this type of model to emphasize the importance of treating CSR as an endogenous variable, as the relationship be-tween CSR and profitability is considered to be bidirectional. We have used three different measures of profitability and one measure of CSR to cover several time aspects in the study.Conclusion: We have not been able to identify any significant relationship between CSR and profitability in our study, neither in the short or long term. However, we were able to see that there are some indications that investments in CSR can have a negative effect on return on equity.