Corporate Leadership in Sustainability: A Green Ranking Performance-Based Approach to Understanding the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Positive Marketing Impact

This paper analyzes several foundational concepts and questions regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR).  Its primary contribution is a statistical examination of fundamental correlations between CSR and Newsweek's 2012 Green Rankings using forensic-based financial and accounting measures.  It slightly replicates a previous study and further introduces new variables in looking at CSR from an economic perspective.  The paper is interdisciplinary in that it synthesizes preceding studies' conceptions of CSR through finance, consumer behavior, branding, and ethics — a mix which has so far been regularly neglected — in an attempt to better characterize and measure corporate social responsibility.