CEOs’ early-life famine experience and corporate donations: Evidence from the great Chinese famine

Abstract

Do traumatic disaster experiences shape people's prosocial attitudes? Some literature suggests that great resource scarcity experience predicts an increase in prosocial allocations, whereas others suggest a decrease. We find CEOs exposed to the Great Chinese Famine tend to drive corporate donations, which is termed the famine effect. CEOs who have experienced more severe famines, were born in poor and food-deficient areas, or currently work in less developed regions, drive more corporate donations. Regarding board characteristics, the famine effect intensifies in older and more famine-affected directors, but decreases as female directors and board diversity increase. Finally, by examining the effect of CEOs' famine experience on different dimensions of CSR, we intriguingly find CEOs' prosocial attitudes are not oriented toward everyone but are specific to those who suffer from resource scarcity. Overall, CEOs' famine experiences substantially affect corporate donations and can result in recipient-dependent prosocial behaviors.