Tiffany: Does Corporate Social Responsibility Really Pay Off?

This article brings up a few really great points. Companies are using ideas like corporate social responsibility to gain a competitive edge in the market. When we think about organizations that aren't practicing social responsibility, are they actually punished because of it? If they are, then it us probably very weak or else we would hear more about it.
http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/16/csr-doesnt-pay-lead-corprespons08-cx_dv_1016vogel.html



"We increasingly hear that corporate social responsibility has become a business imperative. Newspapers, magazines and books glowingly describe the business benefits of behaving responsibly--and caution managers about the business risks of a poor CSR performance.
Executives are repeatedly informed that by demonstrating concern for the environment, human rights, community development and the welfare of their employees both in the U.S. and abroad, they will make their firms more profitable. Their firms will gain a competitive advantage by appealing to the growing numbers of socially and environmentally oriented consumers, investors and employees.
The belief that corporate responsibility "pays" is a seductive one: Who would not want to live in a world in which corporate virtue is rewarded and corporate irresponsibility punished? Unfortunately, the evidence for these rewards and punishment is rather weak. There is a "'market for virtue," but it is a very limited one. Nor is it growing.
One can certainly find examples of firms with superior CSR performance that have done well, as well as firms with poor CSR reputations that have performed poorly. But there are at least as many examples of firms with good CSR records that have not done well and firms with poor CSR reputations that rewarded their shareholders.
The good news is that firms with superior CSR performance have not performed any worse than their less virtuous competitors. But the disappointing news is that neither have they done any better. For most firms, most of the time, CSR is largely irrelevant to their financial performance."