When Principles Pay

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Bottom Line

by Geoffrey Heal

Number of pages: 271

Publisher: Columbia Business School

BBB Library: CSR and NGO

ISBN: 9780231144001



About the Author

Geoffrey Heal, Donald C. Waite III Professor of Social Enterprise at Columbia Business School, is noted for contributions to economic theory and resource and environmental economics. He holds bachelors (first class), masters and doctoral degrees from Cambridge University, where he studied at Churchill College and taught at Christ’s College.

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Editorial Review

Capitalism was successful at generating income and economic growth but often at the expense of the natural environment.  Now things are changing:  we can see the outline of a new system in which we can enjoy the undoubted benefits of a competitive market economy without the environmental costs.  It is a system where consumers, civil society groups, and shareholders, play an increasing role in shaping the corporate world.  It is a system in which principles pay.

Book Reviews

"The book's key message is the authors' explicit denial of the possibility of an overarching theory of institutions and governance." El s ev i e r

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Wisdom to Share

The key to success for any company is to recognize what a company's negative environmental impacts are and investigate how to minimize them.

The market does not care if some people are very poor and others are very rich: society in general does.

In the corporate world, capital markets are important to supporting a comfortable lifestyle and to the process of economic growth.

Studies show clearly that as income rises, child labor drops.

Child labor in developing countries is a topic that quite naturally promotes a visceral reaction when discussing outsourcing.

Today many poor countries have modern educational systems and equipment, and wage differences translate into cost differences.

American and European manufacturers commonly carry out much of their production in low-wage countries.

For financial institutions, external costs are typically not important and not a source of conflict with society.

Many studies indicate that a good corporate social responsibility (CSR) record is correlated with superior financial performance.

The right decisions on social & environmental issues may reduce a company’s cost of capital through the impact of Socially Responsible Investment.

Companies with a good reputation have more success recruiting, maintaining and motivating employees than companies with a poor record.

One advantage for good social behavior is waste reduction.

One of the most important payoffs to social responsibility is managing the risk of boycotting and legal suits.

Conflicts between corporations & society over environmental issues almost always derive from external costs like pollution & deforestation.

Distribution of wealth and income within the population is a classic source of social conflict.

External costs of an activity are paid by other people who are not responsible for the activity and possibly gain no benefit from it.

Capitalism was successful at generating income and economic growth but often at the expense of the natural environment.

Consumers or regulatory bodies can react quickly to behavior that they disapprove of, in the process damaging a company's prospects.

Consumers or regulatory bodies can react quickly to behavior that they disapprove of, in the process damaging a company's prospects.

There is a cost to anti-social corporate behavior that is felt on a slight longer timescale than the apparent gains.