On the Measurement of Corporate Social Responsibility: Self-Reported Disclosures as a Method of Measuring Corporate Social Involvement

Abstract

This article develops a corporate social involvement disclosure scale based on a content analysis of the annual reports of the Fortune 500 companies. Three results are shown: (1) the change over time of these corporations’ social involvement, (2) the direction and scope of this involvement, and (3) the effect that corporate social involvement appears to have on corporate profitability.