Corporate Social Responsibility As a Grassroots Initiative

Abstract

We explore the connection between corporate social responsibility (CSR) intensity and the sociopolitical views of CEOs, elite executives, and non-elite employees and find that the majority of CSR initiatives arise as grassroots efforts rather than top-down directives. The relationship between the personal views of elite executives and CSR intensity is relatively weak, and once we account for variations in the political affiliations of employees there is no association between the personal agendas of CEOs and CSR engagement levels. Results are inconsistent with the view that CEOs invest in CSR to entrench themselves or to create and maintain reputations as good global citizens, and help to explain why similar firms engaging in comparable social initiatives experience heterogeneous returns to CSR outlays.