A Broader Perspective on Corporate Social Responsibility Research in Accounting

M ost companies try to project an image of corporate social responsibility (CSR), often by voluntarily supplementing their annual financial reports with separate CSR reports. Because such CSR reports represent additional disclosures, accounting researchers have become increasingly interested in the role that such disclosures play in firm valuation. The fundamental importance of CSR issues in accounting research is evidenced by the two articles in this Forum (Dhaliwal et al. 2012; Kim et al. 2012), as well as by other recent CSR articles published in The Accounting Review (Dhaliwal et al. 2011; Balakrishnan et al. 2011; Simnett et al. 2009) and other outlets. Traditionally, scholars have considered two broad perspectives on CSR. Economics, finance, and accounting researchers (e.g., Friedman 1970; Shank et al. 2005; Dhaliwal et al. 2011), as well as some writers in the financial press (Karnani 2010), have typically taken the perspective that companies will, or should, only engage in socially responsible activities when doing so maximizes shareholder value. However, there is also a long history of an alternative perspective advocated by