The financial effects of uniform and mixed corporate social performance

Ioannis Oikonomou, Chris Brooks, Stephen Pavelin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

54 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Firms typically present a mixed picture of corporate social performance (CSP), with positive and negative indicators exhibited by the same firm. Thus, stakeholders’ judgements of corporate social responsibility (CSR) typically evaluate positives in the context of negatives, and vice versa. Building on social judgement theory, we present two alternative accounts of how stakeholders respond to such complexity, which provide differing implications for the financial effects of CSP: reciprocal dampening and rewarding uniformity. Echoing notable findings on strategic consistency, our US panel study finds that firms that exhibit uniformly positive or uniformly negative indicators in particular dimensions of CSP outperform firms that exhibit a mixed picture of positives and negatives, which supports the notion that stakeholders’ judgements of CSR reward uniformity.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)898-925
Number of pages28
JournalJournal of management studies
Volume51
Issue number6
Early online date11 Nov 2013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2014

Keywords

  • Sustainability
  • corporate reputation
  • corporate social performance
  • corporate socialresponsibility
  • social judgment theory
  • strategic consistency

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