* Corresponding author. Tel.: +84 0914 915 926 E-mail address: ptthien.kt@uneti.edu.vn (T.T.H. Phan) © 2019 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada doi: 10.5267/j.msl.2019.6.023 Management Science Letters 9 (2019) 2105–2120 Contents lists available at GrowingScience Management Science Letters homepage: www.GrowingScience.com/msl The impact of leadership style and corporate social responsibility practices on financial perfor- mance: Evidence from Textile industry Thi Diep Uyen Doan a , Van Hung Bui b , Thi Thu Hien Phan a* , Xuan Hung Nguyen b and Thi Kim Lien Tran a a University of Economic and Technical Industries, Vietnam b National Economics University, Vietnam C H R O N I C L E A B S T R A C T Article history: Received: May 17, 2019 Received in revised format: June 22 2019 Accepted: June 23, 2019 Available online: June 23, 2019 The objective of this article is to assess the impact of leadership style on deciding to implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) for Nam Dinh textile garment enterprises. At the same time, the article examines the mediate role of CSR on the relationship between transformational leader- ship and financial performance. Moreover, the article verifies the moderate role of firm size in the relationship between transformational leadership and financial performance, Stakeholder - oriented marketing plays a moderate role in the relationship between transformational leadership and CSR practice and moderate role of transactional leadership style in the relationship between CSR prac- tice and financial performance. Analysis was conducted on 168 textile garment enterprises in Nam Dinh. The results show that CSR played a mediate role in the relationship between transformational leadership and financial performance. At the same time, all moderator variables were statistically significant. The result encourages Nam Dinh textile and garment enterprises to conduct business ethically towards sustainable development by implementing CSR. © 2019 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada Keywords: Leadership style Corporate social responsibility Financial performance 1. Introduction A lot of arguments have been happened on many studies for the relationship between leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (Du et al., 2013). Many theories have been used to explain their relationships between leadership and CSR, including: agency theory (Dunlop & Lee, 2004), institutional theory (Resick et al., 2013), managerial values theory (Schaubroeck et al., 2000), stakeholder theory (Coombs & Gilley, 2005) and upper echelon theory (Manner, 2010). Although many theories have been used, researchers still argue whether leadership plays an important role in CSR decisions or not, the relationship between leadership and SCR has not gained consensus (Lewis, 2014).