The Effect of a Ratings-based Approach to Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility
The ratings-based methodology employed by Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) indices in their selection processes excludes many corporations by creating limited-membership lists. This received ratings-based structure is yet to offer an incentive for most of the excluded corporations to invest in improving their levels of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). We, therefore, investigate under what circumstances a ratings-based method for assessing CSR could provide an incentive to firms excluded from SRI indices to invest in CSR. In this article, we attempt to offer a theoretical reply to this question. We argue that when all firms are publicly ranked according to SRI index parameters, such indices can indeed create a market incentive for increased investment by firms in improving their performance in the area of social responsibility. We further show that this incentive tapers off as the amount of investment required exceeds a certain point or if the amount of payback on that investment fails to reach a ce rtain threshold.
Corporate Social Responsibility Social Responsible Investment Corporate Social Performance Corporate Governance Code
Jun Ma
College of business administration Nanchang Institute of Technology Nanchang, China
国际会议
桂林
英文
296-299
2010-11-17（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）