Corporate social responsibility of Internet enterprises based on data mining

Abstract

In the age of the Internet economy, Internet enterprises have attracted tremendous public attention, especially in China. In this paper, data mining through regression analysis, grey relational analysis, decision tree analysis and cluster analysis is implemented to further study the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) of Internet enterprises in China. This study collects and analyzes data of 20 Internet enterprises in China from the year of 2011 to 2016 and draws the following conclusions: (1) the relationship between CSR and CFP of the Internet enterprises is negative; (2) from the stakeholder perspective, CSR to shareholders, creditors and government is positively related to CFP; CSR to customers, suppliers and employees is not positively related to CFP; (3) through decision tree analysis, it is found that what affects the overall CSR performance of the Internet enterprises the most is CSR to customers and suppliers, while what affects the CFP of the Internet enterprises the most is CSR to creditors; (4) through cluster analysis, 20 enterprises can be divided into three types. This study has theoretical, methodological, practical and educational implications for future related research, business practitioners and educational institutions.