Corporate social responsibility and sustainability performance measurement systems: implications for organizational performance

Although an accumulating body of research has yielded a wealth of insights on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its impact on corporate performance, little is known about the role of management accounting and control systems in general, and performance measurement systems in particular, in translating CSR into enhanced performance. As such, this study set out to gain further understanding of this phenomenon by proposing a model in which the use of sustainability performance measurement mediates the relationship between CSR and organizational performance. Based on survey data from a sample of 98 Iranian public listed companies, the results show that CSR positively affects the usage of sustainability performance measurement and organizational performance. More importantly, the findings provide evidence that sustainability performance measurement plays an intervening role between CSR and organizational performance. This study contributes to the sustainability accounting literature in general and sustainability management control in particular by synthesizing stakeholder theory and the fit-as-mediation notion to show that sustainability performance measurement is the mechanism through which CSR affects organizational performance.