自從1999年提出聯合國全球盟約（The UN Global Compact）後，企業家與機構團體逐漸重視企業社會責任。由於逐漸增加的企業社會責任報告與活動，許多學者已開始對於公司的營運目標是否如過去文獻所述為極大化股東價值產生疑問。藉由實證探討企業社會責任績效對企業財務風險的影響，本文推論，當公司具有優越的企業社會責任績效，公司會面臨較低的市場與流動性風險。在敏感性測試中，我們也發現公司具有優越的企業社會責任績效，亦會面臨較低的資金成本。然而，與公司治理有關的社會責任績效卻使公司面臨較高的資金成本。雖然公司治理績效與資金成本存在正向關係，過去已有研究指出公司治理面向有別於其他企業社會責任相關的社會與環境面向。因此，如果企業社會責任活動排除公司治理面向，整體而言，企業社會責任績效與資金成本存在負向關係。

Since the UN Global Compact was proposed in 1999, entrepreneurs and institutions around the world have placed a steadily increasing emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Accompanying the increased levels of CSR reporting and activities, researchers raise questions regarding whether the aim of a firm’s operations is always to maximize shareholder value regardless of other potential motivating factors, an assumption frequently stated in past literature. The present study infers that a firm with superior CSR performance experiences lower market risk and liquidity risk, from empirically assessing the effect of CSR performance on financial risk. The robustness test also finds that superior CSR performance reduces the cost of capital. Furthermore, the study documents that the performance of corporate governance activities increases the cost of capital. Although there is a positive association between corporate governance performance and the cost of capital, prior research suggests that the corporate governance dimension is distinct from other social and environmental dimensions of CSR. Therefore, if the study excludes the corporate governance dimension from CSR activities, the result supports the hypothesis that CSR performance, in sum, is negatively related to the cost of capital.