Improving the organization's financial performance: Does it pay to embrace corporate social responsibility standards?

Recent times have witnessed corporate social responsibility (CSR) become a hot topic across the business world. One major consequence of this is growing clamor for firms to conduct their activities in ways that are not detrimental to the environment or society in general. Therefore, the challenge is to meet these requirements while satisfying demands of different stakeholders.

The CSR concept has gained greater credibility through the introduction of international guidelines and metrics. The chief among them are the Global Reporting Initiative Standards and codes launched by the International Standard Organization (ISO). Although some differences exist between the various quality standards,...