May be in the first years of adopting a such measure...I thing the real earnings are realized in the long term...

The literature in this area points to mixed results. Some argue that there is a positive association between CSR and financial performance while evidence from other studies demonstrate either a negative or neutral association. Orlitzsky et al. has done a meta-analysis on this subject area combining a large sample of studies.

In my opinion, on the long-term a business corporation will increase their profit if it follows certain principles and ethics and respect costumer wishes. Perhaps in the short-term a business corporation could increase their profits by using another type of mechanism, but this situation that could be closed to illegalities will not last forever and if detected the losses could be higher than the profits obtained, including could push the business corporation to bankruptcy in certain cases.

I made a quick review of the influence on consumer behavior - which is related with increased profits, and the results are contradictory, but it seems that the response tends to be positive. Still, without a complex strategy, CSR in itself is not enough.

http://managementdynamics.ro/index.php/journal/article/view/35

Often in the short-run when a corporation does the right thing, it must sacrifice some amount of profit. This trade-off is similar for individual moral agents. Keeping a promise or telling the truth can be accompanied by negative consequences for a person.

In the longer run, a socially responsible corporation may be more likely to benefit from its behavior in increased profit. Studies have indicated that consumers, all other things being equal, are more likely to buy goods and services from a firm with a reputation for socially responsible conduct. This seems to be particularly true of corporations with a good record in the area of environmental stewardship.

With regard to each decision a morally responsible corporation makes, it must consider the effects of its actions on various constuencies (stakeholders), such as customers, employees, local communities, as well as upon shareholders. There is no such thing as a perfect corporate decision, ethically speaking. Its obligations to various stakeholder groups may conflict, and thus the effects of a corporate decision on these constituencies must be weighed carefully in the decision making process. At the same time, a corporation must be profitable to survive. In order to serve stakeholder groups as well as its sharholders, profitability must also be an important factor included in corporate decision making, action, and planning.

Maybe some of you are interested in presenting their reserach on CSR and business ethics: between 2-3 Oct. 2014, the College of Management from NUPSPA in Bucharest and National Bank of Romania organizes a conference investigating the latest evolutions in business management generated by recent economic and financial crises. Special attention and a separate panel is dedicated to Business Ethics and CSR. More details are available on the conference website: www.strategica-conference.ro

May I suggest this interesting article:

It is very useful :) Thank you Barbara :)

You are welcome :)

Totally agree Latifa -  

Litigation has become more prevalent than ever, and recent corporate history shows that any short term profits stemming from ethical corner-cutting are invariably lost several times over later on, owing to litigation from various sources - not only competitors and customers, but nowadays governments and public instances as well.