CSR Initiatives and Firm efficiency of TATA Group of Companies in India - A Variance Analysis

The present paper aims to study the influence level of CSR initiatives on the financial efficiency of the Tata group of companies in India. BSE 200 listed TATA group companies were selected for the study and applied content analysis. Secondary collected data from Annual reports, moneycontrol.com and BSE websites. Edward Altman's “Z” score was treated as modern financial performance and calculated for the period from 2009-10 to 2014-15. CSR Cost variance, CSR Budget variance and CSR Volume variance were calculated through standard costing technique under management accounting principles. The standard cost process is mostly used to control the operating task of the organization. All the parameters have been analyzed with one sample t test, Karl Pearson's correlation for its validity. The coefficient of determination has also been tested through linear regression analysis and the author found that the relationship between CSR variables and the ancient financial variables EPS, Book Value, Return on Equity and Operating Profit were positively correlated and also found that Operating profit influencing to the extent of 95.9%, but the modern financial variable of Altman Z score not influencing the actual CSR contribution of Tata group of companies during the study period. Keywords: CSR Initiative, CSR Budget, CSR recovery, Standard Costing Technique, Altman's Z score and Tata group