Corporate Community Involvement Research Articles

Is corporate community involvement associated with poverty and income inequality? International evidence

ABSTRACT This study explores the relationship between economic conditions and corporate community involvement (CCI) across an international dataset of 7,926 firm-year observations from 33 countries during 2013–2019. We investigate whether and how poverty levels and income inequality within a country are associated with firms’ engagement in social welfare initiatives. Our findings suggest that firms are more active in community contributions in the presence of severe poverty and greater income inequality. Specifically, in developed countries, both factors are strongly linked to CCI, while in developing countries, CCI primarily correlates with income inequality. This research contributes to the literature by showing that firms adjust their ESG strategies based on country-specific economic conditions.

Institutional theory and multinational corporation internationalization strategy: a systematic review and future research agenda

PurposeThis study reviews the literature on institutional theory in international business and examines the institutional factors behind the success or failure of multinational corporations (MNCs) in emerging markets.Design/methodology/approachThis systematic literature review analysed 116 peer-reviewed articles published in leading journals between 2005 and 2022. The R package Bibliometrix and VOSviewer visualization software were used for analysis. A hybrid methodology combining bibliometric and content analyses was utilized to obtain a descriptive evaluation of the publication impact along with a keyword co-occurrence map, context-specific institutional effects and subsidiary strategies.FindingsThe Journal of International Business Studies, along with influential authors such as Mike W. Peng, Klaus Meyer, and Mehmet Demirbag, have taken the lead in advancing institutional theories for MNC internationalization in emerging markets. The clusters from the co-word analysis revealed dominant MNC entry modes, institutional distances and MNC localization strategies. The content analysis highlights how the institutional environment is operationalized across the macro-, micro- and meso-institutional contexts and how the MNC subsidiary responds in emerging markets. Meso-level interactions emphasize the relational aspects of business strategies in emerging markets.Practical implicationsContextualizing subsidiary strategies and institutional forms can help managers align their strategic responses to the dynamic relationship between subsidiaries and the institutional environment. The review findings will enable policymakers to simplify regulatory policies and encourage MNC subsidiary networks with local stakeholders in emerging markets.Social implicationsLegitimacy strategies such as corporate community involvement in emerging markets are crucial for enhancing societal support and removing stakeholders' scepticism for MNC business operations in emerging markets. Moral legitimacy should be implemented by managers, such as lending support to disaster management efforts and humanitarian crises, as they expand to new business environments of emerging markets.Originality/valueThis study is the first to explore institutional diversity and subsidiary strategic responses in a three-layered institutional context. The findings highlight the relevance of contextualizing institutional perspectives for international business scholars and practitioners as they help build context-specific theoretical frameworks and business strategies. Future research recommendations are suggested in the macro-, micro- and meso-institutional contexts.

Stakeholder Perceptions of a Corporate Community Involvement Health Initiative for Male Sport Fans

Stakeholder Perceptions of a Corporate Community Involvement Health Initiative for Male Sport Fans

Sponsorship eras in the English Premier League: changing industries and globalization between 1992 and 2021

ABSTRACT The English Premier League, the elite division of association football (soccer) in England, exploited commercial opportunities and market growth since its rebranding in 1992. The companies involved in professional football sponsorships represented a variety of industries and origins. How substantial did these representations fluctuate to indicate a periodization of sponsorship eras? This paper provides a systematic and longitudinal review of shirt sponsors within the league. The investigation of historical patterns clarified the changing playing field and the current state of play of sponsorships in English football. The remarkable patterns resulted in an interconnected periodization of five sponsorship industry eras and four sponsorship globalization eras. Future sponsorship challenges were identified regarding the corporate context, community fundamentals and the level of involvement affecting new sponsorship eras. These patterns in the world-leading football competition serve as an excellent case for decision makers in other domains to recognize the dynamics in corporate community involvement.

Re-imagining Corporate Community Involvement during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Pharmaceutical Companies in Guangdong Province, China

In this paper, we examine the participation of commercial firms in the fight against COVID-19 through the lens of Corporate Community Involvement (CCI). To display CCI as part of ethical and responsible corporate behavior, CCI studies often use a business-centered approach while paying less attention to the role of the state. Based on the stories of some pharmaceutical companies in Guangdong province joining China’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, we argue that the state may play a crucial role in shaping CCI activities and in making companies partner with the government under a state of emergency. We also point out that it is likely for these companies to translate their involvement in solving public health problems into profit-seeking opportunities. As such, this paper contributes to CCI studies by introducing a state-led approach and suggesting a form of “state-led and market-driven” CCI. Moreover, this study provides fresh information about the effects of corporations on social life and the practice of socially responsible corporate behavior in a state of public health emergency to anthropologists in the new subfields of anthropology of corporate social responsibility and anthropology of business corporations.

Do corporate volunteering programs and perceptions of corporate morality impact perceived employer attractiveness?

PurposeRather recently, corporate volunteering (CV) has become a relevant topic of academic research. Nonetheless, there is still uncertainty about several aspects of the relationship between volunteerism and the corporate realm and research on the relationship between CV and employer attractiveness is scarce. This study aims to attempt to fill this gap by studying the influence that the perceived importance attributed by prospective applicants to the opportunity of engaging in CV programs may have on employer attractiveness while also pondering the existence of an indirect relationship between CV and employer attractiveness mediated by the individual cognition of corporate morality (CM).Design/methodology/approachTo fulfill the objectives of this research, and test its hypothesized model, the authors opted to use a quantitative methodology via survey by questionnaire of Portuguese students who are close to entering the job-seeking process or are currently involved in it, either passively and actively. Data on 238 Portuguese students was collected mainly through social media channels such as LinkedIn and Facebook and was analyzed with the IBM SPSS Statistics 25 software and the IBM SPSS AMOS extension, using a structural equation model to test the hypotheses and obtain insight into the relationships between the variables.FindingsA theoretical model was elaborated based on the literature reviewed and was used to validate the existence of a positive direct relationship between CV and employer attractiveness, CV and CM and between CM and employer attractiveness. Finally, it was observed that CV could prompt an indirect effect on the socioethical perception of employer attractiveness, mainly due to the mediating mechanism of the individual cognition of CM.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has some limitations that should be acknowledged and considered in future studies, namely, the diversity of the sample, as it was essentially formed by students enrolled in the University of Porto and studying mainly in the areas of social sciences, trade and law. It is also worth noting that a global analysis of the employer attractiveness attributes was not considered, focusing instead on the social and ethical spectrum of employer attractiveness. Nonetheless, it is important to keep in mind that different individuals prioritize distinct attractiveness attributes.Practical implicationsThrough the present study, it was understood that CV programs constitute a desired and pertinent tool that should be adopted by firms (employers) to establish a strong position in the job market. These findings are particularly useful for the area of human resources management, which is in charge of finding the most adequate applicants in the job market. Furthermore, for the variable of CM, the authors noticed that there is a theoretical lack of measurement instruments. Consequently, the measure advanced in this study represents an important theoretical and methodologic contribution to the literature.Social implicationsCV is a concept that is yet maturing within the Portuguese business environment. As such, this study delivers useful insights regarding Portuguese applicants’ growing interest around CV, their concerns about the social, ethical and humanitarian attributes of firms and their beliefs regarding the morality of firms’ social policies and actions. Hence, it allowed us to comprehend that by developing a structured CV program, an employer may be able to enhance other essential concepts for Portuguese prospective applicants, respectively, employer attractiveness and CM.Originality/valueThis study corroborates the premise that corporate community involvement activities, namely, CV, hold a positive effect in terms of perceived employer attractiveness. Moreover, it is consistent with the idea that CV programs foment a feeling of intimacy between individuals and firms, consequently creating a perception of morality as part of the firms’ intrinsic traits. Finally, it corroborates and extends for the case of prospective applicants the conclusion that individuals may be relatively more concerned with the motives behind firms’ corporate social responsibility practices than with the content of such practices.

Casino employees' intention to participate in corporate community involvement activities – an extended value-attitude-intention model

PurposeThe success of corporate community involvement depends on employees' perception of and intention to participate in the associated activities. This paper explores personal and perceived organizational factors that influence casino employees' intention to participate in community involvement activities using the extended value-attitude-intention model.Design/methodology/approachBased on a literature review on corporate community involvement in the hospitality industry and the value-attitude-intention hierarchy, a theoretical model that links perceived societal value to employees' behavioral intention was established. The model was tested using responses from 322 Macao's casino employees.FindingsResults of structural equation modeling showed that perceived societal value of corporate community involvement and perceived societal pressure significantly influenced employees' attitude toward community involvement while perceived societal pressure also significantly influenced perceived facilitating conditions. Additionally, employees' attitude toward corporate community involvement and perceived facilitating conditions affected their intention to participate in corporate community involvement activities.Originality/valueCasinos use corporate community involvement as a way of counteracting the negative impacts of commercial gaming and supporting local communities. Hence, it is vital to understand the mechanism of engaging casino employees in corporate community involvement activities.

A Note on Corporate Community Involvement and Green Behavior of Rural Tourism Enterprise in China

Although rural tourism enterprises have played crucial roles in the prosperity of tourist destinations, the environmental damage coming from the nonenvironmental corporate behaviors is also an impo...

Managing legitimacy through corporate community involvement: The effects of subsidiary ownership and host country experience in China

This article examines the legitimacy rationale behind the corporate community involvement of foreign subsidiaries in China from an institutional perspective. Based on the assumption that the level of community involvement reflects a firm’s desire to seek legitimacy in the host country, we suggest two research questions: 1) How do factors determining the need for legitimacy affect foreign subsidiaries’ community involvement? and 2) How can these relationships be moderated by perceived trust in local business relationships? We hypothesize that a foreign parent’s ownership share has a positive effect on its subsidiaries’ local community involvement, while sufficient host country experience leads to less community involvement. We also propose that the level of perceived trust toward local business partners moderates these impacts of parent firm ownership and host country experience on local community involvement. These hypotheses are generally supported by our analysis of 223 Korean subsidiaries in China.

Corporate Community Involvement and Chinese Rural Tourist Destination Sustainability

Although rural tourism enterprises have played crucial roles in the prosperity of tourist destinations, environmental contamination due to corporate behaviour is also an important issue to consider. In this study, we introduce corporate community involvement theory to explore the antecedents and contingency effects of corporate green behaviour for tourist destination sustainability from the perspective of tourism corporate social responsibility. Using first-hand survey data collected in Guangdong and Anhui provinces, and matching second-hand data from the statistical yearbook and tourist destination government work reports, we found that corporate community involvement has a positive impact on the green behaviour of rural tourism enterprises. This association is moderated by place identity and the gross tourism receipts of destinations. By doing so, this research extends the scope of tourism environmental governance from ‘the bottom’ (for tourists) to ‘the top’ (for tourism enterprises). Meanwhile, this research provides feasible advice to policymakers by highlighting the coordination value of enterprises’ initiative strategies (e.g., corporate community involvement) and destination contingency.

Christian Religiosity and Corporate Community Involvement

ABSTRACT:We examine whether religion influences company decisions related to corporate community involvement (CCI). Employing a large US sample, we show that the CCI initiatives of a company are positively associated with the level of Christian religiosity present in the region within which that company’s headquarters is located. This association persists even after we control for a wide range of firm characteristics and after we subject our results to several econometric tests. These results support our religious morality hypothesis which holds that companies headquartered in regions with higher levels of Christian religiosity will engage in more CCI initiatives. We also find that while Catholic and mainline Protestant religiosity have a positive influence on firms’ CCI initiatives, evangelical Protestant religiosity does not. This supports our differentiated responses hypothesis which holds that institutional differences among religious groups will produce different effects on companies’ CCI. This hypothesis is based on institutional theory.

Collective action for tackling “wicked” social problems: A system dynamics model for corporate community involvement

Abstract Although corporations have been often accused of exacerbating social and environmental conditions in developing world regions where they operate, there are companies that sincerely engage in community development initiatives and aim for the delivery of public goods in poor regions. Still there is disquiet on how these companies go about undertaking community development initiatives spawning various forms of criticisms regarding negative side-effects of corporate social action. By means of system dynamics, and based on the longitudinal case study of Tata Chemicals Magadi (Kenya), this paper develops a model of collective action for development. Thereby it sheds light on the variables and mechanisms that are crucial for making community involvement projects an overall success for all actors involved while benefitting the initiating company. The model highlights in particular the importance of “we-feeling” between all relevant stakeholders and of participatory community development capacity. The results indicate that collaborative networks actively including local communities may foster communities’ self-help capacity, while creating a positive feed-back loop to company performance. This study allows exploring new forms of social responsibility that leave behind corporate-focussed models for the sake of inclusive and participatory forms of shared responsibility, which is of relevance on both the academic and practical side, and may also be transferred to an industrialized world context.

The impact of community expectations on corporate community involvement disclosures in the UK

Despite increase mistrust between corporations and societies in the aftermath of the global corporate misbehaviours, the literature examining the impact of community concerns on corporate communications is undeveloped. Our paper is timely; it contributes to the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) by considering the impacts of community expectations on Corporate Community Involvement Disclosures (CCID) using a ten-year panel study. We advance CSR communication research by providing a fresh theoretical perspective – media-agenda-setting theory – to the broad CSR debate and the CCID subset of this debate. Our findings support the media-agenda theoretical expectation and provide important practice and policy recommendations for improving interactions between corporations and their communities.

The Impact of Community Expectations on Corporate Community Involvement Disclosures in the UK

Despite increase mistrust between corporations and societies in the aftermath of the global corporate misbehaviours, the literature examining the impact of community concerns on corporate communications is undeveloped. Our paper is timely; it contributes to the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) by considering the impacts of community expectations on Corporate Community Involvement Disclosures (CCID) using a ten-year panel study. We advance CSR communication research by providing a fresh theoretical perspective - media-agenda-setting theory - to the broad CSR debate and the CCID subset of this debate. Our findings support the media-agenda theoretical expectation and provide important practice and policy recommendations for improving interactions between corporations and their communities.

Research confirms business value of corporate community involvement activities

Research confirms business value of corporate community involvement activities

Corporate foundation’s relationship with the founding company and its role in image building and corporate community involvement programmes

Tytul projektu: Fundacja korporacyjna jako narzedzie realizacji celow spolecznych przedsiebiorstwa.

Corporate-community engagement strategies in the Niger Delta: Some critical reflections’

The pervasiveness of local protests against transnational oil corporations operating in the Niger Delta is frequently cited as evidence of the industry exploiting local communities in the vicinity of their operation. These transnational oil corporations (TNCs) have responded by embracing corporate social responsibility, operationalizing their policies via a number of different corporate-community involvement (CCI) strategies. Collectively, these efforts were meant to address criticisms of corporate misdemeanours, enable TNCs to secure their social licences to operate (SLO) and build positive corporate-community relations. However, few of these CCIs have had much of an impact, a direct result of the managers of oil companies not wishing to relinquish control over decisions concerning CCI, internal fragmentation within local communities, and unresolved legitimacy crises. The paper concludes by considering the theoretical and practical implications for CCI strategies in the extractive industries in developing countries.

Semiotic Approach to Evaluating the Quality and Veracity of CSR Reporting

This study employs the use of a linguistic based theory and analytical tool – Semiotics – to investigate the quality and veracity of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as disclosed in annual reports. To do this, the texts of Corporate Community Involvement (CCI) narratives in the annual reports of sampled companies were analysed in order to reveal the reality of the disclosures. The study revealed that signification of reality is either doubtful or unreal for most sampled companies. Consequently, CCI disclosure could be perceived as just another management process which enables companies to signal CSR compliance. As well as the novelty of introducing semiotics into the CSR disclosure literature, this paper presents a unique CSR Semiotic Reality Model capable of guiding corporations in their CSR activities and reporting.

Evaluating the Implementation of a Professional Sport Team’s Corporate Community Involvement Initiative

As corporate community initiatives (CCI) in sport are becoming an important dimension of corporate social responsibility, a key issue is evaluating the quality of the processes by which they are delivered and how they are managed. The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation process of a professional sport team’s CCI using program evaluation theory (Chen, 2005). Interviews were conducted with 42 key stakeholders (team executives, partnership implementers, participants, parents, coaches) from one Major League Baseball team’s CCI to understand critical processes involved in CCI implementation and execution. The findings showed concerns in the quality of program implementation with the: 1) the partnership agreement, 2) the ecological context, 3) protocol and implementation, and 4) target population. We propose an iterative model of program evaluation for use in the sport context. We conclude the paper with recommendations for further research in this area and implications for practitioners.

Drivers of corporate community involvement and challenges in measuring its impact

Purpose– The aim of this study is to explore drivers of corporate community involvement (CCI) initiatives and the challenges faced by companies in measuring the social impact of their initiatives in Australia.Design/methodology/approach– The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with various corporate social responsibility (CSR) or CCI managers from Australian companies and their not-for-profit (NFP) partners. The final sample consists of 27 managers from a mix of industries.Findings– The study shows that stakeholder's salience may have an impact on CCI activities, especially in the area of measurements and reporting activities. Moreover, while some companies have attempted to measure the social impact of their initiatives, a large number of companies have not. This is all the more surprising given the recent focus in marketing on accountability and measurement. The results show three challenges: lack of interest, lack of resources and lack of consensus. Subsequently, the authors offer some research propositions to underline these challenges.Originality/value– This study focuses on CCI which is one of the most visible parts of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It draws on interviews with various managers in charge of companies' CSR or CCI.