The challenge of measuring CSR performance

The purpose of this chapter is to systematically examine the challenge of measuring corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance by focusing on CSR ratings, which are often used by academic research to proxy for CSR performance. The chapter first analyzes the challenge of defining and operationalizing the CSR performance construct and then discusses how differences between CSR ratings are magnified by ideological differences associated with diverging materiality conceptualizations, that is, financial materiality versus social and environmental materiality (also labelled impact materiality). The chapter then discusses how the challenges with regards to assessing specific CSR performance items are associated with different types of reporting bias. The chapter ends with recommendations for academics, boards of directors, and investors.