Measuring Corporate Social Performance in France: A Critical and Empirical Analysis of ARESE Data

Abstract

This article studies the idea of Corporate Social Performance (CSP) from a critical perspective using empirical elements derived from analysis of year 2000 ARESE data. ARESE is the French first mover ''social rating agency'' providing quantified data about the Social Performance of French companies. The paper starts out by reviewing leading CSP models and discussing problems inherent to the measurement of this construct before going on to present and analyse ARESE data --whose suitability for existing models will be discussed.

Is Sustainability Performance Comparable? A Study of GRI Reports of Mining Organizations

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Community isomorphism and corporate social action

“…Further, to what extent does social performance vary across the globe? Similar to KLD in the United States, social rating agencies exist in a number of countries (e.g., ARESE in France [Igalens & Gond, 2005]), and so a cross-national comparison of corporate social activities is an eminently researchable topic.…”

Environmentally sustainable investment: Dynamics between global thematic indices

“…Technical difficulties refer to the complexity and difficulty involved in managing and measuring SRI issues, especially due to the lack of good public information (Igalens and Gond 2005), while internal difficulties are related to conditions that are particular to an investment institution and the interactions that arise between the individuals within an institution. In turn external difficulties are influenced by the conventions that prevail at the market level and the interactions between individuals in that setting, such as the unrealistic belief in the financial markets, supposing a negative relationship between social and financial performance (Guyatt 2006;Juravle and Lewis 2008;Perrini et al 2012;Hoehler and Hespenheide 2013).…”