Second, studies that investigated the direction of causation between social and financial responsibility (as previously explained), accomplished that through adopting a lead-leg design over time (Preston and O’Bannon, 1997; Moore, 2001). This design is based on the hypothesis of time separation between cause and result, which will allow for distinction 'who comes first' between social or financial performance (Ullmann 1985; McGuire et al. 1988; Waddock and Graves 1997). Thus, various temporal associations were tested, including: (a) prior CSP related to subsequent CFP; (b) prior CFP related to subsequent CSP; and (c) contemporaneous (cross-sectional) associations.