How to design corporate governance structures to enhance corporate social responsibility in China's mining state-owned enterprises?

Abstract

Although high standards of corporate governance (CG) are critical to ensure financial stability and sustain growth, how multidimensions of CG work in concert to influence corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in mining sector is still unknown. Using a sample of 214 firm-year listed mining state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in China from 2008 to 2016, and fuzzy-set/qualitative comparative analysis, we explore which configurations of CG dimensions result in different levels of CSR performance. Our empirical results provide compelling evidence that 1) rather than single CG mechanisms in isolation, two different bundles of CG mechanisms lead to high CSR and not-high CSR, respectively; 2) concentrated ownership structure, strong government intervention and media pressure are core conditions in the effectiveness of CG patterns, while other CG mechanisms are peripheral conditions. Our research contributes to the understanding of CSR in mining firms by focusing on the multidimensions of CG from a configurational perspective, and find support for the claim that the effectiveness of internal CG mechanisms varies according to their context.