Top 10 CSR Research Insights of 2010
The following is a list of the year’s best researchfindings related to CSR. Taken from top management journals such as
the Academy of Management and the Journal of Marketing, these
research insights help senior leaders kick-start their
sustainability planning for 2011.
1. Innovation + Sustainability =
Profit
Xueming Luo (University of Texas) and C.B. Bhattacharya (European
School of Management and Technology) show that innovative firms
engaging in CSR have more satisfied customers. And those satisfied
customers pay off. For a company with a market value of roughly $48
billion, a modest increase in CSR ratings led to annual profits in
subsequent years $17 million higher than organizations that didn’t
actively engage in CSR.
target=”_blank”>Read more.
2. Beat Burnout, Boost
Performance
Adam Grant (Wharton Business School) and
colleagues show helping others makes employees more committed to
your company. And showing employees how their work benefits others
boosts performance and beats burnout. As for how to do it, Grant
suggests: “Managers may invite employees to contribute to
higher-impact projects; introduce employees directly to the
clients, customers, or patients who benefit from their work; or
create new opportunities for participation in corporate social
responsibility and volunteering.” Read more:
target=”_blank”>Employee Volunteerism Boosts
Loyalty
and
Feeling Helpful Prevents Burnout
3. Promote CSR Internally to Engage
Staff
C.B. Bhattacharya (European School of
Management and Technology) and colleagues found that only 37% of
employees were even aware of their firm’s CSR activities. Don’t let
your staff be part of the uninformed majority! Involve employees in
CSR programs, and develop programs that meet employee needs such as
personal development and work-life balance.
target=”_blank”>Read more.
4. Put Product Quality First, CSR
Second
Pat Auger (Melbourne Business School), Tim
Devinney (University of Technology, Sydney) and colleagues show
that consumers do care about ethical features-as long as they don’t
compromise a product’s functional features. For equally good
products, the researchers found 3 out of 5 people would spend more
for the product that is ethically produced.
target=”_blank”>Read more.
5. Get Buy-In Today for CSR Projects
Tomorrow
Todd Rogers (The Analyst Institute) and Max
Bazerman (Harvard Business School) find that people are more likely
to commit to CSR initiatives the further in the future their
personal action is needed. So, getting internal commitment to a
long-term strategy might actually be easier than finding dollars
for a project next quarter.
target=”_blank”>Read more.
6. Prioritize Your CSR
Activities
Julian Marshall (University of Minnesota) and
Mike Toffel (Harvard Business School) outlines the four levels of
sustainability, similar in concept to Maslow’s hierarchy of human
needs. Ranging from human survival at the highest level to values
and asthetic preferences at the lowest level, the framework helps
managers and policy makers identify the most important
sustainability activities to pursue.
target=”_blank”>Read more.
7. Understand How CSR Drives
Performance
Francesco Perrini (University of Bocconi) and colleagues distilled
30 years of research into six categories of CSR activities that
drive financial performance. The categories are: 1) the
organization; 2) the customer; 3) society; 4) the natural
environment; 5) innovation; and 6) governance.
target=”_blank”>Read more.
8. Revisit Your
Reputation
Pascual Berrone (IESE Business School) and
colleagues find that family-owned corporations demonstrate better
environmental performance than other corporations. Why? The manager
of a family-owned firm takes a long-term view of business success
and places greater importance on reputation and recognition, since
his or her personal reputation is tied to the company’s. Berrone’s
observation: “If you want to improve your environmental performance
- and your environmental reputation - you cannot treat your company
solely as a money-making machine.”
target=”_blank”>Read more.
9. Do Right by Your
Stakeholders
Jaepil Choi (Singapore Management University)
and Heli Wang (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) show
that firms with strong stakeholder relations sustain periods of
stellar economic performance and climb quickly out periods of poor
performance. But it takes advance planning. If you try to build
bridges once you’re in financial trouble, it’s already too
late.
target=”_blank”>Read more.
10. Use Standardized Metrics for
Carbon
Volker Hoffman and Timo Busch (both from ETH
Zurich) developed a set of four standard metrics to build carbon
into your company’s planning, activity, and reporting: 1) risk; 2)
exposure; 3) dependency; and 4) intensity. These physical and
financial indicators can help managers, investors and policy makers
make more balanced assessments of companies’ relative carbon
performance. A recent update to this research offers specific
metrics for different sectors. Busch notes: “Standardized measures
for carbon intensity may, in time, allow for ‘low-carbon’
competition across firms in an industry.”
target=”_blank”>Read more.
target=”_blank”>Embedding Sustainability in
Organizational
Culture:
Download the Executive Guide for HR and CSR
Leaders
Source: www.nbs.net
