CSR Research: Corporate Citizenship

The benefits of positive corporate citizenship extend to firms’ credit ratings. Those companies that invest in corporate citizenship, especially in the areas of community, diversity, employee relations, the environment, and product characteristics, have better credit ratings.

In China, cause marketing was shown to be most effective when coupled with price discounts, provided those discounts were moderate. Deep discounts were shown to diminish the effectiveness of cause marketing.

Companies that create formal corporate citizenship policies—complete with targets, measures, and consequences—outperform over the long-term companies that do not.

U.S. investors are laggards in supporting alternative energy—even in the wake of environmental/industrial disasters.

The regulatory environments and societal expectations of the countries in which multinational enterprises (MNEs) operate affect their likelihood of adopting corporate citizenship practices. MNEs are more likely to practice corporate citizenship when the countries in which they operate and/or to which they have strong financial ties require or expect CSR behavior.

Informing your stakeholders about socially responsible behavior of which they were previously unaware can bring a boost to your company’s reputation. Companies can do good for the cause to which they are committed and enhance their reputation even further by using their corporate philanthropy communications to recruit additional support for the cause.

Companies working to create products that improve the living conditions of bottom of the pyramid consumers should consider the distribution and pricing strategies of their products. People are more likely to continue to use a product in the long-term if they’ve paid something for it.

Firms with a higher percentage of independent directors on their boards are more likely to transparently disclose information.

When consumers perceive a company’s corporate citizenship efforts to be robust and focused on stakeholder well-being, instead of just company well-being, they are more likely to view a company’s product positively and use the product more.

Investment in corporate citizenship delivers value when the investment is aligned with local market and headquarters country expectations. A framework can customize strategies for a variety of contexts.

Pressures from stakeholders can encourage firms to invest moderately or deeply in the social dimensions of corporate citizenship. However, the highly technical and costly aspects of environmental investments can lead firms to take an “all or nothing” approach over time, avoiding the middle ground. For firms that go “all in” on environmental programs, economic and competitive opportunities can be significant.

When stakeholders become visibly engaged with corporate actions or policy decisions, peer organizations observe and adjust their responses to corporate citizenship issues.