First Advisor

Brian Bolton

Date of Award

3-1-2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Business Administration: Management and Leadership and University Honors

Department

Business Administration

Subjects

Social responsibility of business, Rate of return, Investments -- Social aspects, Investments -- Environmental aspects

DOI

10.15760/honors.556

Abstract

In the last decade, there has been a revolution in the perception of businesses as entities whose sole goal is to yield returns for their shareholders to the belief that they have a responsibility to mitigate their negative impacts on communities and the environment by voluntarily taking actions to improve those entities. Though there is an increased emphasis among businesses on corporate social responsibility (CSR), there is limited research examining how companies can maximize the positive impact of their strategies and whether or not investing in doing so will make them more successful. To address this gap, my thesis will attempt to answer the question: Do internal or external CSR strategies yield higher ROIs for both companies and the causes they seek to support? By analyzing eight hundred and thirty-nine CSR strategies from ten companies, the study found that internal strategies are significantly more effective than external strategies. The researchers were unable to come to a conclusion regarding the financial ROI of strategies due to limitations in the available financial data and difficulty in comparing data between companies of different industries.

Rights

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Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/25257

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