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The State of Corporate Citizenship in the U.S.

Courtesy of The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College


The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce teamed up to deliver the first survey of American businesses of all sizes on The State of Corporate Citizenship in the U.S. The survey was supported by The Hitachi Foundation, who has been on the forefront of driving research and understanding of corporate citizenship around the globe.

This survey was designed to gain a baseline from which to measure biennially the progress and state of corporate citizenship first in the U.S. and then globally. It is the first corporate citizenship survey in the U.S. to include small and medium-sized businesses and the first to gather information on business efforts in low-income communities.

More than 500 companies responded to the survey, which was conducted in early 2003.

Survey Highlights

Companies see corporate citizenship as an important part of their business.

• Investment in corporate citizenship has increased or remained constant among most businesses.
• The scope and scale of corporate citizenship is bigger than expected. Small and medium-sized businesses are quite active in the corporate citizenship arena.
• Corporate citizenship is driven largely by internal corporate values (75 percent) and customer feedback (53 percent).
• The primary obstacle to corporate citizenship is "lack of resources" (46 percent).
• Twenty percent of businesses include improving conditions in poor communities in their corporate citizenship efforts.
• A majority of businesses, regardless of size, provide cash, volunteer time and/or goods and services to local communities.

Defining Corporate Citizenship

In this baseline survey, corporate citizenship was defined primarily by the companies' responses. Some leading-edge corporations provide an expansive definition of corporate citizenship to encompass commitment to the environment, treatment of employees, safe and reliable products and ethical practices, in addition to more traditional strategic philanthropy, employee volunteerism and signature community involvement programs. Companies say corporate citizenship has several features:

Motivating Factors for Corporate Citizenship

Companies agreed that good corporate citizenship is good business; 82 percent state that good corporate citizenship helps the bottom line, while 74 percent believe that the public has a right to expect companies to act as good citizens. Companies cited a range of internal and external motivating factors for adopting corporate citizenship. Internal motivators include:

• Traditions and values (75%)
• Reputation/image (59%)
• Business strategy (52%)
• Recruit/retain employees (38%)

External pressures cited were:

• Customers and consumers (53%)
• Expected in community (30%)
• Laws and political pressures (24%)

Company Size Doesn't Matter

With a national sample that included small, medium, and large-sized companies, the survey found that size does not matter. The main driver of corporate citizenship is values. Companies see corporate citizenship as good for the bottom line, with the primary obstacle being lack of resources.

"What's most interesting about this first survey is the breakdown by company size, and while the obvious is true that corporate citizenship efforts range depending on size and budget, there is an overall commitment regardless of size to corporate citizenship as a core business imperative," said Suzanne Clark, COO of The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and president of The Center for Corporate Citizenship at The U.S. Chamber. "There are also well-developed views of what constitutes corporate citizenship."

Companies are Walking the Talk

The survey clearly showed that U.S. companies are walking the talk of corporate citizenship. Over 90 percent stated that they have increased or maintained their efforts to reach out to economically distressed communities over the past two years.

What do companies contribute?

What are their priorities?

The momentum behind these numbers suggests that the future of corporate citizenship is bright, as there is much more that businesses can do. The research suggests that in addition to traditional corporate citizenship efforts, companies are paying increased attention to non-traditional stakeholders and an increased involvement in addressing tough global challenges like global warming, poverty and human rights.

Moving the Conversation

"Corporate citizenship is widely misunderstood and poorly defined in the U.S., yet we know it is increasingly a differentiator on many dimensions and that companies care and think about it when doing business," said Dr. Bradley Googins, executive director of The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College. "Corporate reputation, ability to attract and retain an engaged workforce, and a basic license to operate are just a few examples of why companies are engaging in corporate citizenship. This survey is a critical first step in understanding the motivations and practices that U.S. companies use to define corporate citizenship at a time when expectations are increasing for businesses to better define their role in society."

"We intend this groundbreaking survey to move the conversation about business in society beyond abuse and scandal," observed Hitachi Foundation President and CEO Barbara Dyer. "We wanted to capture the nuances and complexities of corporate citizenship, especially within small and medium-sized businesses. Moreover, The Hitachi Foundation wanted to see how business can make a real difference in distressed places. About one in five businesses report in the survey one or more activities that assist hard-pressed communities. That's encouraging, but business can do more in helping places that have remained adrift from the economic and social mainstream for far too long."

To see more survey results, please visit http://www.bc.edu/centers/ccc/Media/state_cc_results.pdf.

This article has been reprinted with the permission of The Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College http://www.bc.edu/centers/ccc/index.html.

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