本研究主要探討，企業社會責任這個議題，是否能跳脫傳統從企業道德﹝business ethics﹞的角度，以更實用性的思考，結合企業所最為關心的經濟利益考量，成功地說服企業用更主動積極的方式從事與企業社會責任相關的決策與投資活動。為了達成該研究目的，本研究採用由道瓊永續性北美指數2005-2007連續三年評選入榜的企業為研究標的，觀測其財務績效相關指標是否明顯優於其餘未入榜的企業。而在現今許多所有權與經營權分離的企業當中，如何成功地降低待理問題，使高階經理人能將組織長遠永續發展的目標結合自身利益，為股東與其他利害關係人帶來最大的利益是本研究第二個探討的議題。藉由分析S&P execucomp資料庫2005-2007年的資料，本研究從高階經理人的年度薪酬資料，去了解企業社會責任執行佳的企業是否在薪酬結構的設計上有不同的設計。資料分析結果顯示，連續三年評選進入道瓊永續性北美指數的企業，其公司成長性顯著優於未入榜的企業；而主要與企業短期績效表現連動的薪酬制度──紅利，其所佔比例越高，將誘使高階經理人挪用於其他能創造短期財務績效的投資活動，長遠來看，將不利於公司企業社會責任活動的執行與發展。 / The goal of this study is to examine whether business performance is affected by the adoption of practice included under the term of “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).”To achieve this goal, the relation between CSR and some accounting or market indicators are analyzed and the existence of significant difference in performance indicators between North American firms that have adopt CSR and others that have not is also examined. Besides, this study takes a further step to explore the extent to which Boards use executive compensation to incite firms to act in accordance with social and environmental objectives. The Dow Jones Sustainability Index- North America is used for distinguishing firms that constantly comply with CSR practice for 3 years (2005-2007) from the rest. Empirical analysis supports the conclusion that differences in performance exist between firms that belong to the DJSI-North America (doing CSR good) and the rest (not doing CSR good). Moreover, the bonus of executive compensation has significant negative relationship with CSR. This finding implies that the compensation linking to short-term performance provides no incentives to executives for doing CSR which has long-term benefit for firms. This in turn suggests that executive compensation can be an effective tool in aligning executives’ welfare with that of the “common good”, which results in more socially responsible firms.