Interaction impacts of corporate social responsibility and service quality on shipping firms’ performance

The interaction impacts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and service quality (SQ) on customer satisfaction, job satisfaction, and financial performance are investigated in the context of shipping. Interviews were conducted, and surveys were administered on 156 shipping firms with operations in Singapore. The collected data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results showed that: (1) customer and job satisfaction fully-mediate the link between corporate level associations (i.e. CSR and SQ) and shipping firms’ financial performance; (2) CSR and SQ complement each other in driving job and customer satisfaction; (3) the interaction between CSR and SQ produces synergistic effects on customer satisfaction but compensatory effects on job satisfaction. The results suggest that the decision to implement CSR is contingent on the motivation of a firm as well as its current SQ capability. This paper contributes to the literature by reconciling the conflicting views on managing SQ performance and corporate social performance based on stakeholder theory, economic theory of complementarities and perceived value theory.