CSR adoption and Involvement in Jus Cogens vs. No-Jus Cogens Human Rights abuses.

Abstract

Management research on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) focuses almost exclusively on the impact of CSR on profitability or corporate value. A largely neglected question is whether CSR impacts positively on society. We address this gap in the literature by exploring the relationship between CSR adoption (as reflected by corporate declarations to adopt CSR policies) and corporate involvement in alleged human rights abuses. Using information on 140 large advanced country corporations, we find that there is a relationship between CSR and alleged human rights abuses, but that the nature of this relationship varies according to the type of abuse: firms that declare to be CSR-adopters appear less likely to be involved than non-adopters in the worst of the abuses (i.e. jus cogens abuses), but more likely than non-adopters to be involved in other types of “less serious” abuse (i.e. no–jus cogens abuses). Also, the adoption of CSR does not reduce corporate involvement in human rights abuses over time, display...