Introduction:
'There is a difference between a good company and a great company. A good company offers excellent products and services. A great company also offers excellent products and services but also strives to make the world a better place'.
As this quote clearly demonstrates, the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is on the rise. Indeed, more and more companies are engaging in CSR-related activities such as cause-related marketing (CRM), employee volunteering (EV) or corporate philanthropy (CP). According to Bhattacharya and Sen more than 80% percent of Fortune 500 companies deal with CSR issues in the United States (US). In European countries such as Germany, the numbers of companies with CSR initiatives is similarly growing. Among those firms are famous examples such as Starbucks and The Body Shop as well as the German companies BMW or SAP.
There are several reasons for this trend. On the one hand, companies are increasingly put under pressure to behave socially responsible from different sides. First, consumers today are more sensitive to business practices of companies and can exert their power by means of boycotts resulting in negative economic consequences for firms. This is especially the case in times of increasing media coverage and advances in information technology where bad business practices become more easily transparent. Particularly, recent corporate scandals like those of Enron, or Shell, among others, make a contribution to consumers' skepticism. Then, globalization leads to new challenges for companies because on the one hand, they are operating in countries with lower standards of living resulting in higher needs for socially responsible behavior in the respective society. On the other hand, worldwide competition is being strengthened in markets, which are characterized by low levels of product differentiation. CSR offers a source of competitive advantage because it enhances the overall reputation of the company and provides a valuable basis for differentiation. Besides that, companies are feeling pressure by a rise in public standards for social performance (e.g. the United Nations Global Compact).
On the other hand, there is evidence that CSR is not only 'the right thing to do" but it also leads to 'doing better" because there is a positive relationship between a company's CSR activities and its stakeholders; especially consumers can be positively influenced. For one thing, market polls confirm the benevolent reactions of consumers to these kinds of companies. Furthermore, a rising stream of academic marketing research attests to the fact that engaging in CSR activities is a business strategy worth doing. By means of lab experiments and field studies, it was found out that CSR has an impact on consumer product responses as well as on their attitude toward the firm. CSR is also reported to positively influence customers' satisfaction as much as customers' identification with the company. These internal aspects can translate into behavioral outcomes such as product purchase, which in turn can improve a company's financial performance. Thus, CSR is also of increasing interested from academia.
However, more research is needed. Most empirical studies give a rather incomplete picture of CSR as they do not consider single CSR activities but view CSR as a whole program. This is in part responsible for the fact that past studies, especially when investigating the effects of CSR on financial outcomes, have lead to controversial results. Hence, the urgent need for research comparing the outcomes of different CSR activities has been emphasized. As was stated: 'Future research should examine variation in the outcomes of specific types of CSR'.
