Why companies tend to postpone CSR investments : An explanation using a real option framework

We analyze a company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) investments from a real option perspective to determine the value of CSR investments and the optimal time to invest in CSR. The idea of studying CSR investments as real options is introduced by Husted (2005) and extended by Cassimon et al (2016) by adding opportunity costs to the model. These previous studies allow companies to invest in CSR solely at the time of maturity. Our study aims to extend this research by incorporating the realistic perspective that companies can invest in CSR at multiple points in the future. We analytically determine the value of CSR investments and answer the question of when to optimally invest in CSR. We examine a real-world example of the palm oil scandal involving Sinar Mas and Nestle in 2008-2010, and explain why Nestle repeatedly postponed investing in CSR, i.e., delayed terminating its contract with Sinar Mas