Corporate Responsibility and Financial Performance

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.