Corporate responsibility practices and financial performance in Europe: a multilevel-pressures theory perspective

This multilevel study investigated the effect of national institutional environments on the relationship between corporate responsibility practices and financial performance in multiple European countries, controlling for firm-level predictors. By doing so, we demonstrate that neither institutional theory nor stakeholder theory is adequate to investigate results in a multilevel study, which is becoming the norm of the 21st century business world. As such, we develop the multilevel-pressures theory designed to handle the demands of multilevel analyses. It synthesises the essences of these two theories and expands upon them. To test our multilevel hypotheses, we conducted a survey of 2,622 firms from 18 European countries representing different institutional contexts in terms of societal governance, European Union integration, and economic conditions. Hierarchical linear modelling results indicated that, consistent with multilevel-pressures theory, national institutional contexts exert multi-level moderating effects on the relationships between investor, local community, and environmental corporate responsibility practices and firms' financial performance.