Corporate Social Responsibility

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| Tracking the Gap between Societal Expectations of Companies and Perceived CSR Performance | | | | | |

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| Femke de Man, Director CSR Research, GlobeScan

This article originally appeared in the online newsletter of the Center for Coporate Citizenship, Boston College, Carroll School of Management, September 2007In 2005, GlobeScan’s annual survey of international public opinion on corporate social responsibility — the 25-nation CSR Monitor — identified an important societal trend: a widening gap between the public's expectations for CSR and the increasingly negative perceptions of industry CSR performance. This trend was found to be consistent across both developed and developing countries, likely influenced by worldwide media coverage of a range of corporate scandals such as Enron, WorldCom, and Ahold.In 2007, GlobeScan reexamined this issue and found an interesting dichotomy between developed and developing nations. While the gap between expectations and perceived industry performance continues to widen in most industrialized nations, the gap is narrowing in developing countries, with people in these emerging markets being far more positive about corporate performance in the area of corporate social responsibility.  | |

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| Rising CSR Expectations | |

| Since 2001, GlobeScan has been asking consumers across 25 countries to rate the extent to which large companies should be held responsible for a variety of different actions.These actions include operationally oriented responsibilities—in other words, actions that are directly related to a company’s operations and that are seen as the standards companies should achieve in their normal course of business (e.g., not harming the environment, ensuring a responsible supply chain, treating employees fairly, having the same high standards wherever it operates, etc.).They also include citizenship responsibilities: socially oriented...