The impact of corporate social responsibility on trade credit: Evidence from Chinese small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises

Abstract Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly important for manufacturers to satisfy the escalating societal expectations for environmentally and socially responsible operations. However, the extant research on CSR has mainly focused on large manufacturers with less attention for small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMMEs). Drawing upon signaling theory, this study investigates the relationship between CSR performance and trade credit of Chinese SMMEs. Using a panel dataset of 1020 Chinese SMMEs between 2010 and 2017, we find that CSR performance has a U-shaped relationship with trade credit. We further observe that financial slack and firm size negatively moderate this curvilinear relationship. This study adds knowledge to the CSR literature in production and operations management by providing insights into the non-linear relationship between CSR performance and trade credit in the Chinese SMME context.