Building on earlier work on the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and a firm’s financial performance, this integrative empirical study supports the theoretical argument that the higher a firm’s CSP the lower its financial risk. Specifically, the relationship between CSP and risk appears to be one of reciprocal causality, because prior CSP is negatively related to subsequent financial risk, and prior financial risk is negatively related to subsequent CSP. Additionally, CSP is more strongly correlated with measures of market risk (...) than measures of accounting risk. Of all CSP measures, reputation for social responsibility appears to be the most important one in terms of its risk implications. (shrink)

By examining existing definitions and data sets, this article explores the current state of efforts intended to measure corporate reputation. Both definitions and data are found to be lacking, and it is argued that many deficiencies in definition and data can be attributed to the fact that theory development related to corporate reputation has been insufficient.

Drawing on the literatures of industrial crises, corporate reputation, and stakeholder theory, this article is an empirical investigation into the impact that accident characteristics have on the corporate reputation for social performance of the firms involved. The main findings are the following: First, environmental damage does have an impact on the reputational scores for social performance, whereas damage to human life, surprisingly, does not. Second, the complexity of an accident plays a role in the reevaluation of the social performance reputational (...) scores. Third, industry executives and analysts differ in their reputational reevaluations of accidents with respect to the complexity of the event. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:This study examines whether the empirical evidence on the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) differs depending on the publication outlet in which that evidence appears. This moderator meta-analysis, based on a total sample size of 33,878 observations, suggests that published CSP-CFP findings have been shaped by differences in institutional logics in different subdisciplines of organization studies. In economics, finance, and accounting journals, the average correlations were only about half the magnitude of the findings published (...) in Social Issues in Management, Business Ethics, or Business and Society journals (mean corrected correlation coefficientof.22 vs..49, respectively). Specifically, economists did not find null or negative CSP-CFP correlations, and average findings published in general management outlets (=.41) were closer to Social Issues in Management, Business Ethics, and Business and Society results than to findings reported in economics, finance, and accounting journals. (shrink)

This article identifies four themes that dominate the literature on corporate reputation and attempts to further distinguish the linkages between the concepts of identity, image, and reputation. Four dimensions of corporate identity are characterized. Arationale for comprehensive measurement of the components of reputation is provided, and a preliminary framework for measuring various dimensions of corporate identity, image, and reputation is developed. Finally, reputation-related questions intended to assist various decision-makers in predicting future business performance are posed in order to focus future (...) advances in the usefulness of the construct of corporate reputation. (shrink)

Three characteristic problems in the measurement of corporate social performance (CSP) center around the need to measure three “metrics”: the metric of performance evaluation (M1), the metric of performance measurement (M2), and the metric of performance perception and belief (M3). The central issues in each metric are commitment, revelation, and belief, respectively. This article discusses each metric and provides sets of theoretical propositions under M2 and M3 describing behavior in those contexts. Some of the propositions inM2form an explicit partial theory (...) of factors affecting the likelihood of CSP measurement. Those under M3 are developed from more general ones in the theory of testaments. (shrink)

A research forum published in Business & Society in 1995 (Issue 2) analyzed whether Fortune magazine's annual Reputation Survey (FRS) is viable as a corporate social performance (CSP) research database. We examine plausible alternative interpretations for a number of assertions and conclusions by the forum authors, including the premise for Brown and Perry's proposed transformation: that the Fortune data are confounded by the presence of a financial "halo," which biases ratings of nonfinancial attributes. Finally, we examine the appropriate roles of (...) the two primary corporate rating systems in the context of CSP. (shrink)