은행은 일반기업과 달리 정부의 보호와 감시를 동시에 받고 있는 독과점적인 규제산업으로, 기타 일반 제조·서비스업에 비해 공공재적인 성향을 띄고 있다. 이러한 산업 특성상 금융회사는 이해관계자들의 신뢰를 제고하고 공정거래를 보장하기 위해 이윤추구뿐만 아니라 사회적 책임 활동이 요구되고 있으나, 그 관심 정도에 비해 금융기관을 대상으로 한 CSR 연구는 많이 부족하며 대부분의 선행 연구들은 제조업에 국한되어있는 경향이 있다. 따라서 본 연구는, 1) 이제는 보편적으로 많은 동의를 받고 있는 기업의 CSR 활동과 재무성과 간의 긍정적인 관계가 국내 일반은행을 대상으로 하는 연구에서도 나타나는지 확인하고, 2) 은행이 수행하고 있는 CSR 활동 중 능동적으로 수행하는 것과, 제도주의적 압력 하에서 방어적으로 수행하는 것 간의 차이가 존재하는지, 또 어느것이 더 유의미하게 재무성과에 영향을 미치는지를 실증적으로 고찰하고자 하며, 3) 은행의 가시성이 CSR 활동과 재무성과 간의 관계를 어떻게 조절하는지 그 효과를 보고자 하였다. 본 연구는 은행법에 의해 설립된 일반은행을 대상으로 독립변수 기준 2010년부터 2017년까지의 [은행사회공헌활동보고서]의 CSR 활동 자료와 금융감독원의 전자공시자료(DART)를 매칭하여, 최종 8년간 14개기업, 82개의 관측치를 수집하여 임의효과모형 패널분석을 시행하였다. 실증분석결과 능동적 CSR 만이 재무성과에 정(+)의 관계가 존재하며, 은행의 가시성의 조절효과를 고려한 분석결과 가시성이 높은 경우 능동적 CSR 활동과 재무성과 간의 정(+)의 관계가 강화되는 것을 확인하였다. 또한 추가분석을 실시하여 은행의 능동적인 CSR 항목 중 지역사회·공익 활동과 학술·교육 활동이 재무성과에 유의미한 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것을 확인하였으며, 이러한 실증 결과를 바탕으로 은행은 이 두 가지 CSR 활동에 집중하는 것이 더 전략적인 선택이 될 수 있음을 시사한다.
Unlike ordinary companies, banks are a monopolistic and regulated industry that is both protected and monitored by the government. Because of these industry characteristics, financial companies are required to pursue social responsibility activities as well as to pursue profits to increase stakeholder trust and ensure fair trade. However, despite these demands, there is a lack of CSR research in banks, and most previous studies are limited to the manufacturing industry. Therefore, this study is to confirm whether 1) positive relations between CSR activities and financial performance of companies that have been widely agreed in general are also shown in studies targeting domestic general banks, and 2) empirically confirm whether there is a difference between the CSR activities performed by the bank on its own and under institutional pressures, and consider which CSR activities affects financial performance more significantly. Specifically, this paper aims to empirically examine how visibility moderates the relationship between CSR activities and financial performance. This study matched the bank"s CSR activity data with that of Data Analysis, Retrieval and Transfer System(DART)"s financial data from 2010 to 2017. 83 observations were collected finally, and a Random-effect GLS regression was conducted. As a result of empirical analysis, only active CSR has a positive relationship to financial performance and the banks with high visibility confirmed that the positive relationship between active CSR activities and financial performance was strengthened. Based on the results of this study, some contributions and implications are discussed. First, because of different financial statements, many existing CSR studies have not considered the banking industry, however, this study contributed to the generalization of CSR research by conducting research on banks. The impact of CSR activities on corporate performance is still mixed. Therefore, this study reduced the ambiguity of CSR by classifying the bank"s CSR activities into active CSR and passive CSR. Only active CSR activities were found to have a positive effect on the performance of the company. In other words, we confirmed that the classification of CSR is empirically meaningful by finding out that active CSR activities have more positive impact on financial performance. Second, this study used data on CSR activities reported by banks in a common format in the [Corporate Citizenship Report] published by the "Korea Federation of Banks". By using more objective quantitative data as CSR measurements, we extended the breadth of CSR measurements compared to previous studies. Finally, the more visible the bank, the stronger the active CSR activities have been. Customers demand high trust and high social responsibility from high visibility banks than low visibility banks. If the demand is not met, the high visibility banks"s financial performance is lower than that of the bank with low visibility, which is a result of failing to meet the expectations of consumers. In other words, the more visible the bank, the need to carry out active social responsibility activities.