Mortality Salience and CSR: The Moderating Roles of CEO Values and Ideology

Abstract

Existing research has made contradictory arguments regarding how death saliency affects individual behavior. Some research suggests that individuals exposed to death salience reduce prosocial behaviors, while other research suggests that death salience actually leads individuals to engage in more prosocial behavior through death reflection process. Integrating terror management theory with strategic leadership research, this study investigates the micro-foundations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and theorizes that CEOs’ values and ideologies, particularly personal values for benevolence and political ideology, interact with mortality salience to affect the extent to which their firms engage in CSR strategies. In a longitudinal study of U.S. publicly listed firms, we use death of directors in firms during 2002-2013 as exogenous shocks to CEOs and examine the effects of death salience on CSR. We predict and find that when exposed to death salience, CEOs with greater benevolence values are more likely to engage in CSR practices and CEOs who are political conservative are less likely to engage in CSR. In a supplementary study using an experimental design and primary data from working professionals, we find further evidence that provides support for our predictions.