Abstract
The impact of CSR practices on firm performances has been attracting considerable attention since late 1980s. No agreement has however been reached so far about this (positive, negative, or neutral) impact. This paper studies – through secondary longitudinal balance sheet data – the effects of one of the most important ethical third-party certification standards (i.e., SA8000) on economic-financial performances and the factors affecting them. We highlight that SA8000 certification positively affects labour productivity and sales performances but has no effect on profitability. Some home country cultural features are shown to moderate the relationship between SA8000 and profitability.