For corporations, social responsibility has become a big business. Companies spend billions of dollars doing good works—everything from boosting diversity in their ranks to developing eco-friendly technology—and then trumpeting those efforts to the public.

But does it pay off?

The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article last week, "Does being ethical pay?"  The journal article reviewed an experiment by two University of Western Ontario researchers. In the study, participants were asked for their willingness to pay for a pound of coffee or a T-Shirt. Different groups of customers were given varying information about the standards the company follows producing their goods. One group got positive information, one negative. A control group was provided with no additional information on the product.

In their experiment, the researchers found that consumers were willing to pay a premium for ethically produced goods over the control group and that consumers were demanding a steep discount for products produced following unethical standards.

For companies, the implications of this study—albeit limited—are apparent. Efforts to move toward ethical production, and promote that behavior, appear to be a wise investment. In other words, if you act in a socially responsible manner, and advertise that fact, you may be able to charge slightly more for your products.

An interesting question would be how this consumer punishment translates to different consumer products, different definitions of "ethical standards" and how much consumer punishment occurs across different consumer markets.