On the drivers of corporate social responsibility in banks: evidence from an ethical rating model

The purpose of the paper is the construction of a multidimensional ethical rating model, based on many items that represent the most significant Corporate Social Responsibility drivers of the banks. The items considered have been drawn from literature and from corporate reporting and websites of banks and then subjected to content analysis. The model, applied to a sample of European banks, was divided into four areas of analysis (Disclosure; Organization and Management; Offer of Socially Responsible Instruments; International Agreements, Certifications and Indexes) to identify the most frequent ethical conducts and the ones that require improvement measures.