Critical Analysis of an Article on Corporate Social Responsibility and Tax Avoidance

Running Head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF AN ARTICLE 1
Critical Analysis of an Article
Name
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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF AN ARTICLE 2
Critical Analysis of an Article
The Article: Lanis, R & Richardson, G. (2015). Is Corporate Social Responsibility
Performance Associated with Tax Avoidance? Journal of Business Ethics. Vol. 127, No.2,
pp 439-457.
Introduction
For the past years, many research studies have been carried out on tax avoidance on
various organizations, including both private and public organizations. However, few researchers
have rarely taken time to investigate whether Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
performance has any impact on tax avoidance level. CSR is a very broad concept that takes on
numerous forms based on the industry and company. Thousands of businesses benefit their
societies through boosting their brands. Despite the fact that CSR is very valuable for both
companies and communities, some of them adhere to paying their taxes and others avoid them
(Lanis & Richardson, 2015). This paper provides a critical analysis of a research article
investigating whether CSR performance is associated with tax avoidance.
Problem definition
The problem statement is clearly and unequivocally stated in the abstract and
introduction of the article. The title of the article is catchy and attracts the reader`s interest since
it is self-explanatory and well described. For any curious reader, it can easily persuade him or her
to read more so as to have an extensive understanding of whether there is any association
between tax avoidance and CSR performance. The researchers focused on investigating whether
CSR performance of various firms is associated with tax avoidance. The problem is very
significant for tax collecting agencies and the government since it provides them with detailed

CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF AN ARTICLE 3
information and further confirmation of the relationship between tax avoidance and CSR
performance (Korschun et al, 2014). The problem statement is very convincing and persuades
the reader since the study provides broader view of understanding corporate taxes, their
avoidance, and the society as a whole. This is very important because it enables the taxation
agencies to discover more efficient strategies that can be used to decrease the levels of tax
avoidance among CSR performing firms. Theoratically, making of one element of CSR more
vital persuades a company to lower tax avoidance. The problem definition also constructs a
persuasive and cogent argument that create urge in the reader to continue reading the article
(Stehr & Jakob, 2014).
This article focused on a vital topic of tax avoidance. Today, there are thousands of firms
that employ all strategies so as to avoid taxes intentionally. Providing extensive knowledge and
evidence about the higher level of taxation avoidance associated with low level CSR performing
firms clearly indicates the firms, taxation agencies should focus on while carrying out the
taxation process. Some of the barriers taxation agencies face while trying to curb tax avoidance
is the absence of adequate information about the problem. Therefore, existence of such an online
publication specifically designed to investigate the firms associated with the problem of tax
avoidance helps law enforcement agencies particularly the ones responsible for taxation to obtain
extensive knowledge of the firms they should put more focus on (Schooley,2019).
Research questions
In the article, the authors do not clearly state the research question in the text body.
Instead, it is upon the reader to understand that the title of the article is the research question. The