The goal of the study was to examine the effect of Corporate social responsibility on corporate performance of manufacturing firms from Balanced scorecard perspective. The study used data from financial statements of firms listed on the Nigeria stock exchange for the period 2005 to 2024. Hausman test, Multiple Regression and various diagnostic tests were conducted on data set. Result indicates that while the various CSR strategies matter for corporate performance, their effects differ depending on the measure of performance considered. Social, economic and environmental costs all have significant effects on Returns on Assets and Net profit Margin, the effect of social cost is however positive while that of economic cost is negative. Thus, a mutually exclusive outcome of the social and economic costs exists on corporate performance of the firms. All independent variables exert significant impacts on internal efficiency; while social cost had significant negative effect, the effect of economic costs is positive demonstrating a mutual exclusive effect. Also, SOC, ECC and ENV exert significant and positive effects on growth thus demonstrating complementary effect All CSR variables have significant effects on customer loyalty although the effects are mutually exclusive. The findings of the research highlight the effect of economic and social costs could be mutually exclusive or complementary depending on the yardstick of measurement. MPS improves for firms that engage in social CSR initiatives, but not for firms that engage in economic cost CSR initiative. The study also provided evidence that it is economic costs that improves internal efficiency in terms of overall resource use by manufacturing firms in Nigeria. This outcome therefore presents a dilemma to managers who want to improve both financial performance and internal efficiency simultaneously. We recommend CSR should therefore be considered as a strategic adaptation rather than a deliberate manipulation strategy of management in order to drive long term performance, especially in relation to the market performance of firms. Social and economic Strategy of CSR are complements in terms of market performance of firms. Thus, firms that seek to improve their market performance do not need to overemphasize the need to engage in social CSR in order to influence investors’ decisions. These firms can as well employ economic strategy to generate the same outcome. Economic CSR strategy improves customer loyalty. We recommend managers should improve production in order to improve their positions before customers. Results reveal that customer loyalty favors firms with heightened economic activity necessitating minimization of social costs over time.