We provide theory and experimental evidence consistent with an unintended, causal
relation between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance and investors'
estimates of fundamental value that can be attenuated by investors' explicit assessment of
CSR performance. Consistent with “affect-as-information” theory from psychology, we find
that investors who are exposed to, but do not explicitly assess, CSR performance derive
higher fundamental value estimates in response to positive CSR performance, and lower …

190 Article Reviews assessments of the firm's fundamental value that may be impacted by
investors' assessments of CSR performance. The authors use affect-as-information theory
(Schwarz and Clore 1983, 2003) to predict a positive relationship between firm CSR
performance and investors' estimates of firm fundamental value for investors who do not
explicitly assess firm CSR performance; however the influence of firm CSR performance is
predicted to decrease when investors explicitly assess firm CSR performance. The authors …