Why, when, and how should the effect of marketing be measured? A stakeholder perspective for corporate social responsibility metrics

This article provides a framework that can be used to design a metrics system for organizations with multiple stakeholders and shows how it can be applied in the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The authors propose that the effort to identify, collect, and calibrate metrics is critical for the diffusion of CSR activities across corporations because metrics allow the goals of different stakeholders to be expressed in terms of a single common denominator. The authors propose the AGREE model, which incorporates multiple stakeholders (audiences); multiple value functions (goals); the inputs, commitments, and actions needed to realize the consensus goals (resources); intertemporal returns (effectiveness); and the costs of such actions (efficiency). This approach leads to a set of metrics that can be used to assess the impact of CSR actions on stakeholders beyond the company's customers, collaborators, and competitors to the larger community. The article concludes with an examination of the issues involved in harnessing CSR metrics to evaluate performance and guide future actions.