Reports

A ranking of the top 50 companies in the United States that the public distinguishes for corporate social responsibility. The ranking was created using data principally collected for Reputation Institute’s 2008 Global Pulse Study. In creating this first CSRI, the researchers used a subset of survey results that focused on more than 200 companies with a dominant presence in the United States and believed to have a reasonably high recognition factor with the general public. The data used focused on the public perception about a company’s corporate citizenship, governance and workplace practices.

In this study, researchers investigate the structures and systems keyed to citizenship in a broad sample of mostly North America-based companies. The research focuses on two questions: How companies organize to meet the demands of corporate citizenship, and how they manage multiple and sometimes conflicting responsibilities to investors, suppliers, customers, employees, community groups and to society at large? From the responses of 330 companies, some trends emerge and the ambiguity associated with managing corporate citizenship was also confirmed.

This paper looks at how corporate citizenship can be understood and managed from a business perspective. It provides a framework for approaching this challenge in today’s complex operating environment, an environment that simultaneously poses new risks and creates opportunities for business.

This report illustrates some of the ways that the most advanced companies have created value from their environmental, social, and governance programs. It also explains why such programs are so hard to assess quantitatively, and lays out a framework for how companies can develop programs strategically, meaningfully assess the value they create, and communicate that value internally and externally. It is based primarily on interviews with 20 companies from 11 industries, and a McKinsey Quarterly global survey of CFOs, investment professionals and corporate social responsibility and sustainability professionals.

The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship’s Institute for Responsible Investment examined the experiences and practices of seven companies in preparing social reports. That examination forms the basis of this overview report and seven separate case studies. This overview research focuses not on the social reports themselves, but rather on the process and outcomes of reporting: how companies prepare the reports, the effects of reporting on management practices, the changes companies expect to make in the future, and the lessons they have learned along the way. The researchers’ goal was to find whether and how companies found value in the reporting process, and whether and how their reports create value for internal and external readers.

To help community involvement professionals steer their volunteer programs toward high community and company impact, this report presents an absolute and a relative benchmark of effectiveness for employee volunteering. The absolute benchmark consists of the Drivers of Effectiveness for Employee Volunteering and Giving Programs composed of the six practices or drivers that, according to existing research, generate community and company impact. The relative benchmark consists of findings from a survey of over 200 Fortune 500 companies that measured collective compliance with the drivers and identified best practices from high performers.

Some leading companies have progressed beyond legal compliance, checkbook philanthropy and stakeholder management to define a next generation of corporate citizenship that takes it from the margins to the mainstream of their business. Mirvis and Googins depict this movement through a developmental model: the stages of corporate citizenship, from an elementary to an engaged, innovative, integrated and, in some instances, transformative approach.

This article, which originally appeared in the journal Corporate Governance, benchmarks how 25 companies in five industries are addressing corporate citizenship through their governance, structures and systems. The paper looks at patterns of leadership practice developing in firms in this regard and what might be shaping them. It also considers current practices in light of movement toward next-generation corporate citizenship.

The 2009 State of Corporate Citizenship in the United States is the fourth biennial survey of the attitudes and actions of senior executives in small, medium and large businesses regarding corporate citizenship. The previous three surveys, conducted in 2003, 2005 and 2007, found that executives view corporate citizenship as a fundamental part of doing business but often allow aspirations to outpace actions. The 2009 survey explores in greater depth the challenges of integrating corporate citizenship into core business practices and how tough economic times have impacted these practices. For the first time we also explore how executives view new public policy challenges and their reaction to public expectations for better regulation of business. We thank The Hitachi Foundation for its generous support of this fourth biennial State of Corporate Citizenship survey and to the business executives and contributors who made this report possible.

In this study, we glimpse into the unique stakeholder landscapes of nine countries: Chile, China, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Philippines, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. Working with members of the Global Education Research Network, this study maps a group of key business stakeholders according to 1) their overall attitude toward corporate citizenship, and 2) their respective influence on corporations’ adoption of corporate citizenship practices. Here we will see to what extent these “stakeholder maps” help to explain differences in the practice of corporate citizenship in different nations. The study also explores how specific stakeholder groups, say government or consumers, exert influence across nations.

Our 2009 Community Involvement Index, which is drawn from an online survey responded to by more than 300 companies, offers a snapshot of the community involvement field. As with corporate citizenship more generally, community involvement appears to be weathering the economic crisis remarkably well. Key findings from this research show that the integration of community involvement into the broader corporate citizenship strategy of the company continues to deepen as does the engagement of other internal and external stakeholders in building and delivering the company’s community involvement strategy and programs. Our findings also show that businesses continue to struggle with the challenge of demonstrating measurable social impact from their initiatives in the communities where they operate. The report provides insight into the state of the field and how companies are approaching this evolving function in today’s challenging business environment.

Key findings from our 2009 Community Involvement Index, which is drawn from an online survey responded to by more than 300 companies. The full report offers a snapshot of the community involvement field. As with corporate citizenship more generally, community involvement appears to be weathering the economic crisis remarkably well. Key findings from this research show that the integration of community involvement into the broader corporate citizenship strategy of the company continues to deepen as does the engagement of other internal and external stakeholders in building and delivering the company’s community involvement strategy and programs. Our findings also show that businesses continue to struggle with the challenge of demonstrating measurable social impact from their initiatives in the communities where they operate. The report provides insight into the state of the field and how companies are approaching this evolving function in today’s challenging business environment.