CORPORATE RATINGS BY SOCIAL MONITORS
Numerous `corporate watchdogs' have come to the fore in recent years and rate companies on narrow issues. They regularly distribute their findings to interested parties, including their constituents and the media. The list of those narrow monitors is
long indeed. Rather than review those, highlighted in this section are the most visible and established of those social monitors -all of which rate companies on a wide variety of issues rather than on a single issue. Many of these social monitors circulate their reports and give awards to top-rated companies. Their influence extends to academic researchers and journalists who regularly consult these social monitors when trying to determine valid ratings of corporate reputations. Most of the social monitors hope to influence investors' and consumers' purchase decisions, in an effort to reward socially responsible companies and penalize companies whose activities are less socially desirable.