Commitment, Revelation, and the Testaments of Belief: The Metrics of Measurement of Corporate Social Performance

Abstract

Three characteristic problems in the measurement of corporate social performance (CSP) center around the need to measure three “metrics”: the metric of performance evaluation (M1), the metric of performance measurement (M2), and the metric of performance perception and belief (M3). The central issues in each metric are commitment, revelation, and belief, respectively. This article discusses each metric and provides sets of theoretical propositions under M2 and M3 describing behavior in those contexts. Some of the propositions inM2form an explicit partial theory of factors affecting the likelihood of CSP measurement. Those under M3 are developed from more general ones in the theory of testaments.