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

Authors: Olivier Furrer; David A. Ralston; Carolyn P. Egri; Wade Danis; Knud Sinding; Jean-Pascal Gond; Nicola Berg; Mario Molteni; Tomasz Ochinowski; Francisco B. Castro; Irina Naoumova; Amandine Furrer-Perrinjaquet; Tevfik Dalgic; Ruth Alas; Marjo Siltaoja; Marina Dabić

Addresses: University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland ' University Fellows International Research Consortium, Washington, D.C., USA ' Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada ' University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada ' University of Southern Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark ' City, University of London, London, UK ' University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany ' Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy ' Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland ' Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal ' University of Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, USA ' University of Lausanne, Switzerland ' University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, USA ' Deceased; formerly of: Estonian Business School ' University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland ' University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia; Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK

Abstract: 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 2622 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 multilevel moderating effects on the relationships between investor, local community and environmental corporate responsibility practices and firms' financial performance.

Keywords: corporate responsibility; Europe; financial performance; institutional theory; multilevel-pressures theory; stakeholder theory.

DOI: 10.1504/EJIM.2026.151627

European Journal of International Management, 2026 Vol.28 No.3, pp.365 - 402

Published online: 10 Feb 2026 *

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