Desperately Seeking a Standard Metric for Corporate Social Performance

Abstract

Despite all the attempts developed so far to measure corporate social performance in the last decades, a standard metric for it is still missing. In this work, the author tries to understand why is this the case. To do so, the author has reviewed 69 relevant metrics developed in the literature since the 1970s until today, covering approaches based on social, reputational, and environmental ratings, as well as several others constructed ad hoc by reputated scholars. The author analyzes each of them through a double optics, checking if they meet the minimum requirements to be considered standard and truly social. The research reveals that the main factor that prevents such a standard is the lack of truly social orientation of the existing metrics.

Citation

Masip, M. (2020), "Desperately Seeking a Standard Metric for Corporate Social Performance", Songini, L., Pistoni, A., Baret, P. and Kunc, M.H. (Ed.) Non-Financial Disclosure and Integrated Reporting: Practices and Critical Issues (Studies in Managerial and Financial Accounting, Vol. 34), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 9-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-351220200000034003