The Wall Street Journal has a great article online called Does Being Ethical Pay? It examines how companies spend huge amounts of money to be ’socially responsible’ but asks if consumers really benefit.

For corporations, social responsibility has become a big business. Companies spend billions of dollars doing good works — everything from boosting diversity in their ranks to developing eco-friendly technology — and then trumpeting those efforts to the public.But does it pay off?
Many companies hope consumers will pay a premium for products made with higher ethical standards. But most companies plunge in without testing that assumption or some other crucial questions. Will buyers actually reward good corporate behavior by paying more for products — and will they punish irresponsible behavior by paying less? If so, how much? And just how far does a company really need to go to win people over? [Wall Street Journal]

To answer this question The Wall Street Journal conducted a series of experiments, check out the results and the full article at http://online.wsj.com. Also and check out http://www.business-ethics.com/BE100_all for a list of 100 companies that demonstrate corporate social responsibility.