The first to formally propose CSR was Sheldon. In 1924, he pointed out that when an enterprise pursues the maximization of interests, it should also pay attention to the needs of relevant groups inside and outside the enterprise and contribute to society. However, after nearly a century of theoretical and practical development, there is still no clear and accurate definition of CSR. From the perspective of economics, it is believed that the greatest responsibility of an enterprise is to continuously pursue profits within the scope stipulated by law [23]. From the perspective of sociology, while being responsible to shareholders and earning profits, enterprises should also participate in social welfare protection and pay attention to people’s livelihood and ecological construction. Howard Bowen, known as the “father of corporate social responsibility”, also pointed out that the social responsibility of managers is to enact policies, make decisions, and take actions according to social standards and values. In this vein, we can think that CSR is not only the obligation of enterprises to pursue long-term goals but also an important part of socially sustainable development [24]. CSR is also important for enterprises to disclose non-financial information, to effectively alleviate information asymmetry, strengthen internal control, and avoid insider trading. The growing importance of CSR to corporate and social development makes it an important research topic in management and accounting [25,26]. Managers use resources prudently, and only those activities that contribute to CSR can help companies gain competitive advantages [27]. In their study, Hu et al. pointed out that corporate behavior that enhances stakeholder value has become a new measure of financial performance [28]. Looking at the relevant literature, it can be found that since the 1970s, the research on the relationship between CSR and FP has been a very hot topic [29].

However, the results of their studies are quite different. There are several statements such as positive correlation, negative correlation, irrelevance, and nonlinearity. Studies using different CSR measures and financial performance variables will yield different results [30]. In existing studies, most scholars believe that CSR can promote the improvement of financial performance [31,32,33,34]. Chen and Wang found that, in the Chinese market, fulfilling corporate social responsibility can improve the financial performance of the current year and the next year [35]. Maqbool and Zameer demonstrated that CSR can improve the profitability and stock returns of Indian banks. Cochran and Wood found that if a company can actively implement CSR in the normal production and operation processes, the financial performance of the company will be improved compared with the company that does not implement CSR [36]. Stakeholder theory puts forward the goals and content of corporate social responsibility and posits that, through corporate social responsibility activities, the conflicts of interest between stakeholders and enterprises can be reduced [37], thereby establishing a good reputation for enterprises, enabling enterprises to reduce costs or gain differentiated competitive advantages to improve their financial performance [38,39]. However, some scholars believe that it is unwise to invest in a field unrelated to the operation of the enterprise, which is a waste of enterprise resources [7]. Agency theory argues that CSR activities are the manifestation of excessive investment by managers. Managers will lose corporate profits to improve their own reputation or that of enterprises, thus weakening corporate performance [40,41]. Therefore, enterprises should pay more attention to how to improve their operational efficiency, instead of wasting resources on social organizations that have nothing to do with their operations. In addition, some scholars believe that there is no relationship between CSR and FP [42], or that there is a nonlinear relationship between the two [43,44].

There are various reasons for enterprises to carry out social responsibility activities [45]. In the process of enterprise management, one of the problems that managers must solve is to reduce stakeholders’ suspicion of CSR activities. In other words, the difficulty that managers need to overcome is to communicate with stakeholders smoothly [46]. Chae pointed out that, although some companies will disclose their social responsibility activities, consumers still tend to learn about products or brands through third-party platforms or media reports when purchasing products [47]. Therefore, enterprises need to use media to spread corporate information. As a tool for disseminating and amplifying information, we should not underestimate the power of the media in the information age. In a complex market environment, the media can disseminate information about corporate social responsibility quickly and widely, and corporate stakeholders can maximize the use of this information to make investment decisions and improve market competitiveness [48]. It can be seen that media attention, with its timeliness and authenticity, plays a key role in corporate social responsibility and corporate performance, motivating enterprises to pay attention to social responsibility to improve their own performance.

In addition, media attention has played an external regulatory role for listed companies, and it is also an important way for ordinary citizens to obtain information about companies’ fulfillment of social responsibilities [49]. As an independent third party, the media actively reports the news of corporate fulfillment of social responsibility, which improves the visualization and transparency of corporate behavior. Therefore, both positive and negative reports force listed companies to pay more attention to the implementation of CSR [50]. The media amplifies the influence of CSR behavior. When the media reports positively on corporate social responsibility activities, it can more effectively portray a good image of the company, thereby attracting investors to invest; when the media reports negatively on social responsibility activities, the company will be under the pressure of public opinion. At this time, it will increase investment in social activities to build good reputation capital. By combing through previous studies, Dyck found that the supervision of media attention on enterprises can reach 13% [51]. It can be seen that media attention can indeed influence corporate behavior. Because media attention reduces the information asymmetry between consumers and other stakeholders and enterprises, listed companies are more willing to take the initiative to disclose CSR to safeguard their own honor and corporate interests.

Therefore, if the media can report objectively and fairly, CSR activities can win more trust from consumers [52]. Companies that actively undertake social responsibilities will actively seek media attention and expect positive reports. When the media carries out positive reports on the social activities of enterprises, the public will grasp more information about enterprises, enhancing enterprises’ willingness to disclose information, thus forming a positive cycle [53].

In recent years, there has been abundant research on CSR and FP as well as media attention and CSR, but only some research combines the three. With the continuous development of information technology, the media of information transmission is increasingly diversified, and the utilization rate of media is constantly improving. Media, as a third party, will report corporate information without bias, making it gradually become an important carrier for stakeholders and enterprises to communicate information [54]. Scholars such as Abbas found that the performance level of heavily polluting enterprises (power industry) sensitive to media reports will be greatly improved when they use low-pollution equipment [55]. However, these scholars all focus on media attention as a mediating variable. In fact, in the research on the relationship between CSR and FP, there is no consistent conclusion about the strength and direction of influence between the two. The more media attention focused on a company, the greater the external pressure on the company [56]. Therefore, media attention can greatly promote the autonomy of enterprises, making them attach great importance to the social impact of their operations. Stakeholders understand and monitor the actions of enterprises through media reports and “reward and punish enterprises” through “purchase or not”; the results are directly reflected in the financial performance of enterprises [57]. In addition, the media, as a tool to guide trends in public opinion in society, will exert binding force and external pressure on the behavior of enterprises, prompting enterprises to be responsible for the social impact of their various business behaviors, thus affecting enterprise performance. Therefore, from a statistical point of view, it seems more convincing to study media attention as a moderating variable.