Does Corporate Social Responsibility Put Reputation at Risk? *

CSR is not only believed to improve a company’s innovation, but also its reputation. However, CSR may also put reputation at risk by making the company a more attractive target for activists’ campaigns. Test results in Chapter 5 show that CSR increases the future probability that an SME is monitored by local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and that this increases criticism on the SME’s CSR. The results imply that SMEs that implement CSR only half-heartedly are more vulnerable to public criticism than SMEs that do not engage in CSR at all.