Although the results of the November poll are not statistically significant, the primary take-away is that there is no consensus on how to evaluate the effectiveness of a company’s social strategy. It is unclear which CSR approach is more valuable to consumers- a corporation making incremental impact across several fronts or a corporation that invests heavily in one area of focus. Consumers need a structured way to evaluate one company against another in terms of responsibility – currently their perceptions are not always aligned with reality.
Corporations should care about consumer’s perceptions because consumers are making investment decisions based on them. Consumers have invested $2.71 trillion in SRI funds in 2008; this number is expected to increase by 228% in the next 5-10 years. It is in a corporation’s best interest to accurately represent its social strategies to maximize the investment it receives. Today indices exist that rank corporations based on meeting minimum thresholds of social strategy (for example, publishing a CSR report). A framework that measures the link between the business and social value of social strategy needs to be developed to aid consumers/investors in deciding how to best invest their money.
-Andrea Box & Aneesa Arshad
