CSR Research: Corporate Citizenship

This study analyzed how increased coverage by major media organizations affected U.S. companies’ CSR efforts. Researchers found companies under greater scrutiny are more likely to increase their CSR efforts but they focus more often on increasing positive impacts, rather than reducing negative effects that may result from business operations.

Researchers analyzed the role of corporate social responsibility in determining the financial terms of bank loans to corporations. They found that firms with higher quality CSR and few CSR concerns will have an advantage in the lending market.

Researchers in this study looked at the relationship between corporate social performance and financial performance to determine which comes first. They found that while corporate social performance generally depends on prior financial performance, environmental concerns and social strengths of a firm can impact financial performance and risk.

This study looked at how perceptions of cause-related marketing initiatives influence consumers’ beliefs, attitudes, and intentions. Researchers found that consumers’ perceptions of a firm’s motivations and how well a cause fits with a brand are extremely important to consumers’ opinions of a firm.

This research examines how giving consumers choice of a cause to support influences their response to cause marketing. It also considers how consumer and campaign characteristics impact the effectiveness of cause marketing.

In this study researchers analyzed the impact of stakeholder relations on the financial performance of firms. Their findings suggest that good stakeholder relations can have a positive impact on financial performance whether a firm is performing well or poorly.

This study looked at how performance on a strategic initiative was affected by its compatibility with an organization’s characteristics and capabilities. Researchers found it was particularly important for groups pursuing innovative strategic initiatives to demonstrate their benefits using data, analysis and/or arguments to gain organizational support.

Researchers looked at how corporate responsibility-related experiences and beliefs influence stakeholder trust and positive intent toward a firm. They found that companies need to balance a variety of issues and that CR activities can have impacts in multiple directions on a wide variety of stakeholders.

Researchers investigated how positive beliefs about various aspects of a company shield it against various types of negative information. The study results suggest that there is no crossover effect from one aspect to another but favorable opinions about a company in one area result in increased resistance to negative information in that same area.

In a May 2011 speech, Andrew G. Haldane and Richard Davies illustrate that pressure to return value on a short time horizon causes investors to seek deals with higher initial returns despite the fact that investments with longer return horizons, such as infrastructure and alternative technology or supply chain management initiatives, often have higher cumulative returns over time.

This study looked at how stakeholder trust in organizations differs based on the depth of the relationship and whether the relationship is internal or external. Researchers found that stakeholder perceptions of whether the values and behavior of an organization are aligned with their own play a significant role in trust in all relationships.

In this study researchers looked at how being added to or removed from an index of socially responsible companies affects a firm’s financial performance. Results show that inclusion in a socially responsible index is mediated by the firm’s reputation prior to inclusion.