State of Corporate Citizenship

Consumer data protection and privacy has been hailed as the next major priority for corporate citizenship programs in a new report.

2014 State of Corporate Citizenship also suggests that for the first time in over a decade, the majority of business executives anticipate a resources increase across all areas of corporate citizenship over the next three years.

Respondents nominated consumer data protection and privacy as the area most likely to receive increased resources in the coming three years, followed by employee safety practices and engagement with stakeholders.

Company priorities differed to customers' priorities, with executive respondents most concerned with their employees compared to customers who prioritised widespread social and environmental issues.

Authored by The Carroll School of Management Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College in the US, the study examines how executives view corporate citizenship and their firms' performance in the environmental, social, and governance dimensions of business—and about how corporate citizenship contributes to business objectives.

The majority of executive respondents, across all business types and industries, confirmed that corporate citizenship helped them successfully achieve strategic goals, ultimately improving performance.

"This year, executives have issued a clear verdict: corporate citizenship delivers real business results," executive director at the Center for Corporate Citizenship, Katherine Smith said.

"The majority of executive respondents are choosing to meet the social and business challenges of our time by thoughtfully integrating corporate citizenship into business strategy—and by doing so are meeting objectives such as increasing market share and improving financial performance."

Companies that strategically integrated corporate citizenship were 2.2 times more likely to gain access to new markets and 2.3 times more likely to report success with employee retention.

Those with a commitment to corporate citizenship of at least four years were three times more likely to report success with managing risk with those who committed for less than a year. It is the sixth time the study has been conducted since 2003.

Read the executive summary here.