"A firm of endearment (FoE) is a company that endears itself to stakeholders by bringing the interests of all stakeholder groups into strategic alignment. No stakeholder group benefits at the expense of any other stakeholder group, and each prospers as others do." (Sisodia et al., 2007, p. 6)

"The public FoEs returned 1026% for investors over 10 years ending June 30, 2006, compared to 122% for the S&P 500; that's more than an eight to one ratio! Over five years of the ratio is even higher, because the FoEs returned 128%, while the S&P 500 only gained 13%. Over three years, FoEs returned 73% versus 38% for the S&P 500.” (Sisodia et al., 2007, p. 16)

A model of 10 “recognizable and uncontroversial positive, normative corporate values—accountability, courage, excellence, fairness, honesty, honor, respect, trust, integrity, and responsibility—was used to test the effect of values on corporate performance of 240 small, medium and large business organizations listed on the TSX in 2004. The findings indicate that there is a positive, statistically significant relationship between ethical values and performance. In sum, taking all firms together, the findings of the multivariate analysis show that firm performance: (a) increases with increases in the appearance of ethical value terms, (b) decreases with firm size, (c) decreases with debt ratio, (d) increases with ROA, and (e) decreases with shareholdings of large shareholders (holdings more than 25%).” (Donker et al, 2008, p. 535)

“A portfolio of the top twenty publicly listed best companies to work for in the USA in 2008 would have returned an average annualized return of 16.74% over the past ten years – compared to 2.83% for the S&P 500.” (Richard Barrett, Workshop on ‘Leadership in the 21st Century,’ February 9, 2009 )
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Recommended Reading

Donker, H, Poff, D., & Zahir, S. (2008) Corporate values, codes of ethics, and firm performance: A look at the Canadian context. Journal of Business Ethics, 82, 527-537

Sisodia, R., Wolfe, D. & Sheth, J. (2007) Firms of endearment: How world-class companies profit from passion and purpose, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Publishing.