Research Proposal Social and Financial Performance in Medium-Sized Enterprises: an Italian Perspective Lucia Leonardi University of Trento, Italy January, 2011 Abstract Over the last three decades, academics have examined the “business case” for corporate social responsibility (CSR) by assessing the rationale for organizations to address societal interests that would lead to positive financial returns. Despite evidence of an overall positive linkage, findings about the degree of connection between social and financial performance vary considerably among studies. There is growing evidence that social performance de- pends upon operational settings. The proposed research will investigate the extent and the conditions under which a positive linkage between social and financial performance ex- ists in Italy by analyzing a sample of medium-sized enterprises within a specific industry. For this purpose, appropriate measures of social performance will be built. Based on the stakeholder action perspective, the study will focus on a specific stakeholder group–financial intermediaries–in order to identify the transmission mechanisms between this group and the firm’s social performance. 1