A model of corporate social performance: Social satisfaction and moral conduct

This article discusses corporate social performance (CSP) in manager-consumer interactions. The article identifies CSP with the private provision of public goods. The model analyzes two kinds of social preferences: the consumer's taste for CSP and the manager's taste for CSP. The primary force in determining the level of corporate moral conduct is the resulting social satisfaction in the interactions. A behavioral view identifies an alternative source of inertia as the low level of moral conduct insensitive to the social values. The firm operating at the high level of moral conduct focuses on meeting the expectations of socially conscious consumers and improves the provision of public goods.