Rhetoric and realities of corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is often considered as an alternative for direct government regulation to internalize externalities on markets. Especially in a complex economically liberated and globalized world order, in which direct government regulation and centrally creating new markets for missing ones can be rather costly, social welfare might be enhanced when powerful market participants like companies choose to internalize externalities voluntarily by improving their corporate social performance (CSP). But is doing CSR really feasible for companies and can CSR indeed contribute to social welfare or is it just a rhetoric exercise of companies to maximize their own welfare on behalf of the social welfare? This dissertation studies these questions by (i) examining which and how economic, institutional and factors internal to the company affect the level of CSP and (ii) whether and how the rhetoric of CSR generates concrete impacts and therefore indeed contributes to social welfare.