31
May
To appeal to consumers, enterprises such as Amazon and Zoom have been emphasizing their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives through comprehensive reports.These documents enable companies to present their efforts that positively impact employees, clients, neighborhoods, and the environment—emphasizing goals that extend beyond mere profit-making. Studies suggest that reporting on CSR is associated with a rise in sales.As a marketing professor, this correlation prompted a compelling question: Are the additional sales driven by CSR disclosures coming from new customers, or are they simply boosting purchases from the existing customer base?In a recent study analyzing several hundred Chinese companies, a colleague and…
