Microsoft is at the top of a corporate citizens list put together by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, Burson/Marsteller and Landor. The Corporate Citizenship Study June 2009 revealed that consumers had an entirely different perspective over corporate responsibility compared to CSR professionals. In this context, the report compares the scores awarded by the respondents of the Corporate Citizenship Study with those delivered by the CRO 100. In this regard, Microsoft has a score of 96 in CSR Brand Index, matched only by General Mills, but the two companies that top the study are nowhere near the no. 1 and no. 2 positions in CRO 100, with scores of 161.525 and respectively 51.085.

“Consumer perception of corporate responsibility is uncorrelated with measured rankings like the CRO 100 –meaning there is a major opportunity for companies to increase their return on citizenship and reputation investments by associating them more strongly with their brands,” reads an excerpt from the study.

Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, Burson/Marsteller and Landor explained that there were indeed a series of benefits inherently associated with being perceived as a top corporate citizen. In this regard, the company indicated that “people are willing to pay more for products from socially responsible companies, but almost no companies have any profile as socially responsible. People are willing to receive less salary in exchange for working for a socially responsible company, but companies are failing to communicate even to their own employees whether they are socially responsible.”

The Corporate Citizenship Study June 2009 involved the testing of consumer perception as well as that of social responsibility for no less than 69 brands. Of them, 23 are also present in the 2009 CRO 100 top. “Brands’ performance on consumer perception metrics is uncorrelated with actual social responsibility performance as measured by the CRO 100. Demonstrating that companies investing in CSR need to do more to communicate their commitment to consumers,” the study indicated.