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The core idea of corporate social responsibility, the notion that companies have a responsibility beyond legal requirements, is by now deeply embedded in the corporate cultures of the largest U.S. companies. The authors suggest that productive debate now focuses on the following two issues. First, what are the impacts of existing corporate social responsibility programs for the corporation? And, second, what constitutes the precise contours of this responsibility? This book explores these two themes.
The issue of how corporate social responsibility affects individual companies engaged in socially responsible activities is not well understood. Further, the distinction between legitimate and illegitimate corporate social responsibility activities has not always been clearly drawn. This book, therefore, is designed to fill in some of the gaps in our understanding. This is done by carefully organizing and reviewing the relevant and growing literature on corporate social responsibility. In addition, this book reports on the results of two original empirical studies designed to further explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility and traditional financial performance. This book has profound implications for business executives and researchers in finance, accounting, business ethics, and business and society.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Idea of Corporate Social Responsibility
The Association between Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial PerformanceThe Paradox of Social Cost
The Association between Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Performance: Methodology and Results
The Language of Corporate Social ResponsibilityAnnual Reports as a Medium for Voluntarily Signalling and Justifying Corporate Social Responsibility Activities
The Language of Corporate Social Responsibility: Methodology and Results
The Legitimacy of Corporate Social ResponsibilityCriteria for Evaluating the Legitimacy of Corporate Social Responsibility Projects
Evaluating Specific Social Responsibility Projects
Corporate Responsibilities Beyond an Information Disclosure Policy
Conclusions: Ten Propositions about Corporate Social Responsibility
Bibliography
Appendix A: Summary of 21 Empirical Studies
Appendix B: Socially Screened versus Control Firms
Appendix C: Socially Screened versus Control Firms
About the author
MOSES L. PAVA is currently Associate Professor of Accounting and holds the Alvin H. Einbender Chair in Business Ethics at the Sy Syms School of Business, Yeshiva University in New York. He is the author of numerous articles on financial disclosures and corporate social responsibility and is author of
The Shareholder's Use of Corporate Annual Reports (1993).
JOSHUA KRAUSZ is Gershon and Merle Stern Professor of Banking and Finance at the Sy Syms School of Business, Yeshiva University. His research interests include financial analysis, ethics and social responsibility, financial accounting, options and derivatives, price behavior, capital budgeting, and taxation.
