Proceedings of the International Association for Business and Society

Volume 24, 2013

Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting

Changing the Landscape
Battling Information Asymmetries to Accelerate Adoption of CSR Business Practices

In the absence of credible information and corresponding positive feedback from stakeholders, firms have limited incentive to invest in CSR practices. This paper focuses on the under-exploited potential of initiatives designed to overcome the inhibiting effects of information asymmetries on the adoption of socially responsible behaviors. Mechanisms to address information asymmetries can accelerate the adoption of socially responsible practices by increasing the rewards firms receive for responsible behavior, and raise the cost of retaining less responsible behaviors by making them more visible to interested stakeholders.