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Measuring the social impact of corporate behavior
The latest? Do The Right Thing...a community driven site that collects information about the social impact of a company’s behavior...
How it works: Company names are submitted by users for a 60 day evaluation period, similar to an IPO evaluation. During this stage the crowd pulls any information, historical or current, relevant to a company’s social performance. At the end of that open period – a social performance score is created. Right now there are 54 days left on the evaluation period for Starbucks, Wal-Mart and Whole Foods Market. And after the 60-day initial rating a company’s score can always change as new information is collected.
Here is more. My fear is that this will favor corporations with good public relations, damage corporations which benefit foreigners and the (non-Internet connected) poor, and damage corporations whose benefits are not especially visible to the public eye. How many people will post "I bought my rubber ducky at Wal-Mart and saved thirty-four cents, thereby helping to employ numerous poor Chinese and lower global inequality"?
Here is one critical posting on the site itself. Here is another.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on January 30, 2007 at 01:35 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
How many people will post "I bought my rubber ducky at Wal-Mart and saved thirty-four cents, thereby helping to employ numerous poor Chinese and lower global inequality"?
Exactly right and a reason for concern.
Posted by: EclectEcon at Jan 30, 2007 4:02:49 PM
How many people will visit the site and decide not to shop at Wal-mart or Starbucks? Very few, I believe. I don't think the website will have any influence over people's consumption behavior; it'll merely re-enforce people's preconceived notions about those various companies, positive or negative.
Posted by: Biomed Tim at Jan 30, 2007 8:28:33 PM
The winners: any medium-sized company that targets "socially aware" boomers and their neuroses. The losers: any big, successful company.
Posted by: Foobarista at Jan 31, 2007 2:42:02 AM
Oh yeah, nothing destroys the free market faster than consumers stating their preferences and acquiring information in an attempt to satisfy such preferences. Didn't Arrow prove some theorem to this effect?
Get rid of the do-gooding and we have another fascinating "Markets in Everything" entry, unintended consequences be damned.
Posted by: Barbar at Jan 31, 2007 9:28:55 AM
Sounds like all the flaws of Wikipedia writ large. Ben and Jerry's will score high, Halliburton will score low, proving that ... one is more popular than the other among contributors to the site. Eureka!
Posted by: Kent Guida at Jan 31, 2007 12:00:39 PM
The losers: any big, successful company.
Cry me a river. Starbucks is a big successful company with premium prices on a premium product. They are quite focused on doing what they feel is good and the make money for their shareholders. They'll do quite well, I'm sure.
You act as if all big successful companies have a right to continue being big and successful regardless of whether people want to patronize them. If a company engages in practices that alienate their customers then they are not market driven and deserve to lose market share. Further, the executives are ignoring their fudicial responsibility to maximize shareholder value and should be fired.
Don't pretend to be on the side of corporations and markets. You are whining because markets sometimes force corporations to do things in contradiction to your political beliefs. I can't believe their are people stupid enough to promote pollution, collusion, child-labor exploitation, slavery, and other social ills as inherent rights of the capitalist.
Posted by: an ony mouse at Jan 31, 2007 1:19:51 PM
"You act as if all big successful companies have a right to continue being big and successful regardless of whether people want to patronize them."
No one said that or anything like that.
"I can't believe their are people stupid enough to promote pollution, collusion, child-labor exploitation, slavery, and other social ills as inherent rights of the capitalist."
No one here is doing that.
A big corporation can't be sucessful if people don't want to patronize their stores or use their products. The lattenistas and the Gestapmarto aren't dragging people who don't want to go to Starbucks and don't want to go Wal*Mart out of their bed and forcing them to buy expensive coffee and cheap general goods. People do so because they want to -- even if they say how much they HATE these evil corporations elsewhere. Money talks. There is almost no place where these firms have a real monopoly, especially Starbucks. They both make money by giving people thngs they want at prices they want.
If you plan on arguing, at least do so against what people actually say, not what you make up that they say.
Posted by: Johnny Debacle at Jan 31, 2007 3:05:26 PM
(Disclaimer: I'm one of the people behind dotherightthing.com)
There is in my opinion a couple of things that are worth mentioning here:
"How many people will visit the site and decide not to shop at Wal-mart or Starbucks? Very few, I believe."
I wouldn't necessary use the examples here, but there are a lot of people that really care what companies are doing and want to base their consumption behaviour based on that. They just haven't had a focused place for that discussion.
Also, you seem to think that our site is only meant for negative stories, which is not at all the case. I just bought a Herman Miller Mirra chair and will definitely write an article about the reasons for that purchase: that Mirra is plain and simple the best chair I've ever used, including Aeron; that their factory is mentioned as an example of eco-effectiveness in Cradle to Cradle; and that they're proud enough about their products to offer a 12-year warranty, work included.
The front page of The Cluetrain Manifesto quite famously reads:
"A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies."
Our goal is to enhance, consolidate, and - most of all - be a part of that discussion. And also provide companies an easier way to delve in themselves.
Posted by: Jarkko Laine at Jan 31, 2007 4:39:12 PM
Johnny, go to Walmart. Save some money on your next purchase. Use the savings to buy a clue. There's no problem with people voting with their dollars. If people choose to avoid a product or service because they don't like the way the company does business, its their friggin' choice. They have a right to do what they want. The whiners who think big companies will be hurt are just whiners. It is a cold tough market. If you do too many objectionable things, you could find your products floating in Boston harbor.
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