Griffin and Mahon (1997)

Griffin and Mahon. "The Corporate Social Performance and Corporate Financial Performance Debate: Twenty-Five Years of Incomparable Research." Business & Society, March 1997.

From the authors' abstract:  "This article extends earlier research concerning the relationship between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance, with particular emphasis on methodological inconsistencies...   The results indicate that the a priori use of measures may actually predetermine the CSP/CFP relationship outcome. Surprisingly, Fortune and KLD indices very closely track one another, whereas TRI and corporate philanthropy differentiate between high and low social performers and do not correlate to the firm's financial performance."

LK comment:  See Orlitzky et al (2003), and the subsequent literature reviews, discussed at the bottom of this page.

Link:  http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000765039703600102