Chapter 13: Corporate Social Responsibility Scholarship: Retrospect and Prospect

Research in corporate social responsibility and performance (CSR/CSP) has made very significant advances over the past several decades, yet there is so much more to be done. Research in this area is exceptionally difficult because of corporate opaqueness and secrecy, the lack of a viable guiding theory, and the juxtaposition of CSR/CSP against the prevailing neoclassical economic theory of the firm. Researchers’ choices of topic, domain, theory, variables and their operational surrogates, data, and analytical method have all come a long way but require a great deal more conscious refinement. Pressures on untenured researchers and those not fully promoted are tremendous; thus, senior scholars are in the best position to organize and supervise research projects of serious benefit to CSR/CSP knowledge and understanding.