Corporate social responsibility disclosures: A double-edged sword, study finds
To appeal to consumers, enterprises such as Amazon and Zoom have been emphasizing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives through comprehensive reports.These reports allow businesses to showcase their initiatives benefiting employees, customers, communities, and the environment—highlighting objectives beyond profit generation. Research indicates that CSR disclosures are linked to increased sales.As a marketing professor, this connection led to an intriguing inquiry: Are the extra sales generated by CSR disclosures attracting new clients, or are they merely enhancing purchases from the current customer base?In a recent study analyzing several hundred Chinese companies, a colleague and I sought to answer this question. Our…