This study assesses the causal relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) McGuire et al., (1988) analysed the relationships between perceptions of firms' CSR and measures of their CFP using Fortune magazine's ratings of corporate reputations. The study showed that a firm's prior performance, assessed by both stock-market returns and accounting based measures, is more closely related to CSR than its subsequent performance, and measures of risk are more closely associated with social performance.