Using KLD data on the performance of 188 companies over a three-year period in seven areas of corporate social responsibility (CSR) – environment, community, corporate governance, diversity, employee relations, human rights, and product quality – this study examines whether CSR initiatives have a greater impact on company performance (CP) if the company prioritizes the CSR issues that matter most to it and approaches CSR initiatives in a strategic way, than if it approaches them based on generic rationale unrelated to the company's strategy. The results show that when a company pursues CSR initiatives that are linked to stakeholder preferences and allocates resources to these initiatives in a strategic way, the positive effect of its CSR initiatives on CP strengthens in terms of both market-based and accounting-based measures of performance. However, this relationship was not observed across the board for all of the seven areas of CSR. The main conclusion of this study is that companies need to link their CSR initiatives to the likely preferences of their stakeholders and undertake the corporate social actions that are relevant to the company's strateg

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine what factors in addition to the needs of financial markets drive the voluntary disclosure practices of companies in Italy and in the United States. Design/methodology/approach -Information provided in the management discussion and analysis section of the annual reports of 72 companies was content analyzed to determine the volume and the quality of voluntary disclosures. Findings -Results show that in addition to investors' information needs, factors such as company emphasis on stakeholder management, relevance of intangible asset, and market complexity affect both the volume as well as the quality of voluntary disclosures.Research limitations/implications -The study is based on the voluntary disclosures made in a single year, which makes this study a snapshot. The size of the sample used in this study is relatively small. Future research aimed at examining country differences in voluntary disclosures made by companies needs to examine the business contexts in a comprehensive manner, so that differences observed across country boundaries can be adequately explained. Practical implications -The comprehensive framework developed in this study for organizing and evaluating voluntary disclosures is an initial step in the direction of examining voluntary disclosure from the stakeholder perspective. Originality/value -While results of this study confirm the findings of previous researchers, they also identify new drivers of voluntary disclosures and give some evidence about the similarity and differences in these factors across country contexts.

Purpose -The purpose of this study is to examine the similarities and differences in the strategic orientation and innovation patterns of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large companies and to investigate their implications for market performance. Design/methodology/approach -Miles and Snow's strategic typology is applied to 592 new products to determine their companies' strategic orientations. Data collected over a two-year period by 62 companies in the Italian yogurt industry are analyzed. Findings -The results show that, while large firms operate with a "prospector" orientation, SMEs have a "defender" or "reactor" orientation. Only a small number of SMEs can innovate successfully, and an ex post facto investigation reveals that these firms follow an "open innovation model". Originality/value -The findings fill a gap in the literature by clarifying the similarities and differences in the strategic orientations, innovation patterns and performance of SMEs and large companies in a dynamic industry environment. The study also provides insights for managers in new food product development who are concerned about low rates of innovation and high rates of failure.

Using KLD data on more than 900 company's performance over a nine year period in seven areas of corporate social responsibility (environment, community, corporate governance, diversity, employee relations, human rights, and product quality), this research note re-tests Michelon et al. (2013) proxies for prioritization and strategic approaches to CSR. The results show that, when a company pursues CSR initiatives that are linked to stakeholder preferences and allocates resources to these initiatives in a strategic way, the positive effect of its CSR initiatives on financial Corporate Performance (CP) strengthen. The analysis of KLDs' variance and top tiers is thus proposed as a parsimonious way to measure when companies link their CSR initiatives to salient stakeholder preferences and undertake the corporate social actions that are ultimately relevant to the company's strategy and financials.

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