THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SYSTEMATIC, AGGREGATE MEASURE OF CORPORATE SOCIAL PERFORMANCE

Individuals, groups, and government units have developed considerable interested in evaluating the social performance of corporations. Evalu ating corporate social performance (CSP) is important for researchers investigating the relationship between different organizational measur es and CSP and for stakeholders employing social performance informati on in their decision making models. To assess CSP, an aggregate measur e of CSP which incorporates both an independent assessment of actual p erformance and the individual value judgements of the stakeholder is n eeded. In this study, Mle propose a methodology for the development of a systematic measure of CSP using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Thi s multi-criteria decision making technique allows for the conversion o f a multidimensional scale to a unidimensional scale, enabling analysi s/comparison of companies both within the same industry and across ind ustries. The technique is illustrated by developing a measure of CSP u sing several types of managers. The results indicate that there are la rge rank changes when individual value judgements are incorporated usi ng relative importance weights.