Individual and Corporate Social Responsibility

By Roland Bénabou, Jean Tirole. Social Science Research Network, 2010

2,064 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Society’s demands for individual and corporate social responsibility as an alternative response to market and distributive failures are becoming increasingly prominent. We first draw on recent developments in the “psychology and economics” of prosocial behavior to shed light on this trend, which reflects a complex interplay of genuine altruism, social or self image concerns, and material incentives. We then link individual concerns to corporate social responsibility, contrasting three possible understandings of the term: the adoption of a more long-term perspective by firms, the delegated exercise of prosocial behavior on behalf of stakeholders, and insider-initiated corporate philanthropy. For both individuals and firms we discuss the benefits, costs and limits of socially responsible behavior as a means to further societal goals.

Subfields: Information Systems and Management, Safety Research, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0c4c84545ef890594207698bd6dd34d405e6c9cf

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Citations in the corpus

Socially responsible corporate customers (2020, background): “Some scholars argue that the growing popularity of CSR activities around the world is, in part, in response to the repeated failures of laws and regulations protecting stakeholders, raising the need from stakeholders to protect their own interests through pushing the company to engage in CSR (Bénabo”
Resiliency of Environmental and Social Stocks: An Analysis of the Exogenous COVID-19 Market Crash (2020, neutral): “1 Benabou and Tirole (2010) discuss three possible views of corporate ESG activities: ESG activities motivate firms to adopt a longer-term perspective; ESG activities are delegated prosocial behaviors; and ESG activities are insider-initiated corporate philanthropy. 2 See, for example, the meta-anal”
A Multidimensional Analysis of the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Firms' Economic Performance (2018, background): “Benabou and Tirole (2010) discuss three different visions of CSR and the rationale for both a positive and a negative link between CSR and companies' performances.”
Corporate social responsibility and capital allocation efficiency (2017, neutral): “…Friedman's (1970) well-known argument that “the only social responsibility of corporations is to make money”, argues that CSR is a manifestation of agency problems (e.g., Aupperle et al., 1985; Bénabou and Tirole, 2010; Krüger, 2015; McWilliams et al., 2006) and often is costly for shareholders.”
Corporate Social Responsibility Performance, Incentives, and Learning Effects (2020, background): “In some cases, corporate reputation or image concerns with respect to shareholders and other stakeholders may also drive firms to engage in some sort of instrumental CSR reporting in the form of ‘greenwashing’ (Bénabou and Tirole 2010).”
Beyond Good Intentions: Designing CSR Initiatives for Greater Social Impact (2020, background): “…food waste (Devin & Richards, 2018), emissions (Chatterji, Levine, & Toffel, 2009), employee engagement (Flammer & Luo, 2017), societal goals (Benabou & Tirole, 2010), stakeholder relations (Bhattacharya, Korschun, & Sen, 2009), and environmental innovations (e.g., Kesidou & Demirel, 2012;…”
Does Ownership Type Matter for Corporate Social Responsibility (2012, background): “Of course, apart from this ownership perspective, there are several alternative reasons regarding corporate engagement with CSR (see Bénabou & Tirole, 2010; Blowfield & Murray, 2008; Harjoto & Jo, 2011).”
Corporate social responsibility, board of directors, and firm performance: an analysis of their relationships (2014, background): “…specifically, CSR may help improve the firm’s differentiation (Baron 2008), which would have a positive effect on its reputation and may lead to a rise in profitability because of increased legitimacy for the firm and better conditions for negotiating with stakeholders (Bénabou and Tirole 2010).”
Companies Should Maximize Shareholder Welfare Not Market Value (2017, background): “4Elhauge (2005), Bénabou and Tirole (2010), and Morgan and Tumlinson (2012) also consider the case of non-separable activities. 5See Bénabou and Tirole (2010) for a discussion of this issue.”
CSR and financial performance: complementarity between environmental, social and business behaviours (2014, background): “As CSR is a multi-dimensional construct, the different dimensions need to be taken into account simultaneously when analysing its impact on financial performance (Hillman and Keim, 2001; Brammer and Pavelin, 2006; Bénabou and Tirole, 2010; Tang et al., 2012; Belu and Manescu, 2013).”