Psychological Foundations of Corporate Social Responsibility: The Importance of “Avoiding Badâ€

In their focal article, Aguinis and Glavas (2013) emphasize that despite a growing body of research, the conditions facilitating positive effects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) remain unclear. In regard to this issue, empirical studies have thus far produced inconsistent and equivocal results (for an overview, see Margolis & Walsh, 2003). Aguinis and Glavas introduce the difference between embedded and peripheral CSR as a key differentiation to explain why and when CSR is more likely to lead to positive outcomes. Specifically, they argue that CSR is more likely to lead to positive outcomes if it is embedded and consequently related to an organization's core competencies and integrated within a firm's strategy, routines, and operations. The idea of embedded CSR being more likely to lead to positive outcomes is compatible with, for instance, the notion of “shared value†(Porter & Kramer, 2011).