Most American investors think that socially responsible mutual funds contribute to better corporate behavior, according to a new major investor survey conducted by Calvert [http://www.calvert.com]. Knowing that a company is rated higher in terms of their social performance would make 71 percent of Americans more likely to invest in that company and 77 percent would purchase more of their products and services.

Going through email that was not a priority when it arrived, I found the above tidbit in David Batstone’s WAG newsletter (from last April, I confess).

Those are remarkable statistics. Over 2/3 use social responsibility as an investment screen, and over 3/4 as a factor in making a purchase.

So why do we still have so much unresponsive, focused-only-on-financial-bottom-line, and downright nasty corporate behavior? Because people don’t realize that good corporate behavior is a direct path to better profitability. If you’d like to educate a corporate friend on this, I recommend my award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First–it outlines exactly how and why companies succeed better by doing the right thing.