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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

socially responsible business, SCREEN, popular press

College

Physical and Mathematical Sciences

Department

Statistics

Abstract

In the popular press of today’s business world, socially responsible business is a hot topic. Periodicals, books, mutual funds, associations, and countless other media, groups, and people tout socially responsible business as the “right” thing for forward-looking companies to do. Underlying all of the claims of benefits that come from social responsibility is the assumption that becoming a socially responsible company is a simple task that any firm can accomplish. The purpose of this study was to question that assumption. It may (or may not) be a simple task to acquire a socially responsible image, but to become a truly socially responsible company — where social responsibility is part of the firm’s identity — is much more difficult. In fact, our null hypothesis in this study was that all firms that have a hybrid identity (where doing well economically and doing good socially are both integral to “who we are” as a company) began as such. We would disprove this hypothesis if we could find even one company that was able to graft social responsibility into its identity after reaching maturity as an organization.

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