Corporate Foundations Research Articles

Counter-Activism Against Ideological Opponents: Evidence Based on the Competitive Dynamics of Corporate Engagement in Advocacy Giving

A growing body of literature has sought to understand the strategic drivers of corporate activism, emphasizing the ideological composition of a firm’s workforce as its salient internal driver. Despite these advancements, however, the heterogeneity in its effect remains underexplored, leaving it unclear when employee ideology is more likely to translate into activism. We address this gap by considering competitors’ actions—another important driver uncovered in the scholarship—as a key source of heterogeneity. We examine how these actions can shape the external context in which a firm’s employees evaluate the value of its activism, thereby influencing the firm’s incentives to act on employees' preferences. Our central conjecture is that activism by so-called ideological opponents of a firm’s employee base will be a particularly strong driver of its own activism. This is because actions taken by competitors who hold stances opposite to those valued by a firm’s employees can create a temporal window during which the firm can gain enough employee appreciation for its activism—particularly counter-activism opposing the stance of the competitor. Leveraging the donation records of corporate foundations to advocacy nonprofits as a novel channel for studying corporate activism, we find support for this conjecture. Consistent with our theory, we further find that this effect is driven by firms whose employees hold homogeneous ideological preferences and arises primarily around issues with strong ideological contention.

INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDUSTRIAL SECTOR OF THE ECONOMY OF PAVLODAR REGION: FORECASTING AND PRIORITIES

At the present stage, the country as a whole and in the regions have created the necessary basic conditions for building an innovation-oriented management system for the industrial sector, including corporate foundations, personnel training, and the implementation of state programs in the field of industrial and innovative development. At the meso-levels, work has been carried out on the formation of an infrastructure for the innovative development of the industrial sector. At the micro-levels, as part of the transition of industrial enterprises to innovative management systems, projects are being implemented to introduce international management systems, digitalize production processes, and create innovative organizational and management structures. The practical application of the model of innovative management of the industrial sector of the Pavlodar region in the conditions of digitalization should ensure, along with the economic effect, qualitative trends in transformational changes in the results of the activities of industrial enterprises in the region. To directly determine qualitative trends in transformational changes in the results of industrial enterprises, appropriate criteria must be identified. The article discusses innovative management, which is an essential element of the entire management system of any organization and is based on human potential. The main target of innovative management is focused on the effective achievement of the goals of the organization’s activities through qualitative changes in all elements and subsystems of management using innovations and innovations. The main result of innovative management is the growth of competitiveness of organizations, both in domestic and foreign markets. Keywords: forecast, innovation management, industry, management, digitalization.

Liturgy as an instrument of confessional identification: William Laud and the challenge of “foreign churches” in England

This publication presents the first translation intoRussian of a number of documents which portray the religious policy ofWilliamLaud,Archbishop ofCanterbury, supported byCharlesIStuart, towards foreignReformed churches in theProvince ofCanterbury.The documents include royal orders given in various forms, notarial instruments, petitions fromCalvinist congregations to both theKing and theArchbishop, and excerpts from correspondence between representatives of said congregations.They demonstrate the role of liturgy as an instrument of confessional identification and, consequently, of politico-religious loyalty in seventeenth-centuryReformationEngland.The authors also note the correlation ofLaud’s ideas with the transformation of the corporate foundations ofEnglish society and the formation of an “individualist” type of relationship between theCrown and its subjects, based on archaic feudal law and the precedents of the classicalMiddleAges, the essence of which consisted of personal ties of allegiance between the monarch (his “body natural”) and the subject, rather than between the subject and the “body politic” of the monarch (i.e., the “country”).

How Managerial Practices Impact Perceived Organizational Effectiveness: A Study of Corporate Foundations

The organizational effectiveness of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) has received considerable attention from the scientific research community and society. Nonprofit scholars call for more empirical research that tests existing theories and develops multidimensional frameworks at the organizational level, with a focus on actual management practices. Previous studies have suggested that a broad set of management practices at the program and organizational levels have positive implications for the perceived effectiveness of NPOs. This study evaluates and refines a conceptual model of the antecedents of organizational effectiveness and validates its applicability in the context of charitable foundations established by corporations. Based on survey data from their executive leaders, this study’s empirical findings suggest that perceived organizational effectiveness is less affected by a broad set of management practices and is driven by a few selected best practices that focus on specific stakeholder groups (i.e., experts). Moreover, the results show that certain organizational characteristics, such as organizational experience, can strengthen the perceived effectiveness of charitable foundations. Overall, the results of this study may help nonprofit executive leaders to better understand that a careful selection and implementation of specific practices might be more beneficial for an organization’s effectiveness than an extensive list of practices. Moreover, this study contributes on a broader theoretical level to the study of multidimensional frameworks as a suitable measure for identifying key antecedents of leader-perceived organizational effectiveness across different types of NPOs.

Motivations for Establishing a Corporate Foundation in Australia

ABSTRACT Similar to other countries, Australian firms are increasingly using corporate foundations (CFs) to manage their philanthropic giving. While research has explored the global expansion of CFs, there has been limited understanding on why they are established. This study involving 16 Australian CF managers used qualitative thematic analysis to identify the following four motivational factors that most influence organizational establishment of CFs: 1) centralizing corporate giving; 2) stakeholder influences; 3) financial advantages of foundation structure; and 4) strategic benefits to the establishing firm. The results suggest most Australian firms establish CFs to undertake strategic philanthropy, assisting those in need while capitalizing on the legitimizing social benefits. Many also use it to market activities to their staff, thereby enhancing internal engagement and retention. Yet despite such positive benefits, there is rarely a reduction in principal-agency costs when using a structured CF controlled by corporate executives rather than ad-hoc corporate giving. Furthermore, the decision to establish a CF is often based on normative isomorphism (copying competitors). Additionally, no CFs were established for direct taxation benefits, rather most were focused on the tax benefits associated with employee giving and donations from the general public. The uniqueness of these results, compared with other research, suggests there could be differing motivations to establish CFs based on the organization and the environment of the country where it is located.

Caught between two worlds: CSR of Swiss Corporate Foundations

Purpose: This study explored the activities of Swiss corporate foundations as the CSR arms of their parent corporations. Even though Switzerland has a favorable legal context for setting up foundations and is perceived as a country with a long philanthropic tradition, little empirical research exists on this topic. Design/Methodology: The sample of 14 foundations represented SMEs and large multinationals across eight industries. Qualitative in-depth interviews were used for data gathering, accompanied by elite interviews with opinion leaders. The data focused on various aspects such as the connection to the funding corporation, the rationale behind setting up the foundation, current perceptions on corporate citizenship as well as the stakeholder communication. Findings: The findings revealed that Swiss corporate foundations seem to be caught between two worlds. They are beholden to a profit-oriented corporation for establishing them but they are expected by society to pursue the altruistic goal of being good citizens supporting charitable activities. They have a delicate balancing act to develop their own identity and position themselves to society. To stay within the legal boundaries and keep credibility high, these foundations struggled to not be seen as the publicity arm of the parent corporation – some foundations performing this balancing act better than others. Different structures such as the composition of the board of trustees or the place of work reflected the standpoint of the interviewees of either being independent or supporting the business. Originality: To the best of our knowledge, no other study has explored the dimensions of Swiss corporate foundations as conducted in this study, which is important to the body of knowledge. Given the large number of corporate foundations in the world, this study helps broaden the horizons of the CSR body of knowledge.

대기업집단 공익법인의 지배구조가 공익 창출 성과에 미치는 영향

대기업집단 공익법인의 지배구조가 공익 창출 성과에 미치는 영향

Working with the Elite: the Intersection of Social Work and Corporate Foundations - the Case of Zuellig Family Foundation

Social Work draws from various disciplines but is perceived to be the direct opposite of corporate work, however, there is a need to work with the elite for the sake of social development due to their available resources and skills that social workers lack. While Corporate Social Responsibility typically takes the form of dole-outs on a voluntary basis, it has begun to transition into building partnerships with communities. Data from the Local Health System program of Zuellig Family Foundation was examined to (a) describe the developmental principles used by an elite foundation for the development and implementation of their program, (b) determine the intersection of the operations of the program with the Empowerment Theory and Developmental Perspective as practiced by the Social Work profession, and (c) discuss the role of social workers in corporate-led programs. Despite the surface differences of social work and corporate work, foundations of the elite can be effective contributors to social change and development, and can work with the Social Work profession in empowering communities that suffer from inequities. The findings of the study indicate that social work professionals and other humanities professions must explore partnerships with corporate-led foundations to deepen knowledge bases and ensure social development.
 
 Keywords: Social Work profession, Corporate Social Responsibility, Empowerment Theory, Developmental Perspective, Zuellig Family Foundation, Local Health System, partnership

From bricks to brain cells revisited: Canadian philanthropy and higher education

As the nature of philanthropy in Canada has changed, the purpose of gifts to higher education is evolving away from infrastructure and towards the development of knowledge and the training of young minds. In this viewpoint, reflecting on my 20 years of experience working closely with funders, including business leaders with private foundations, and corporate foundations themselves, I revisit the relationship between corporate philanthropy and higher education in Canada and conclude that there has been a continuing trend away “from bricks to brain cells”.

A study on corporate foundation and philanthropy: Does governance matter for organizational performance?

AbstractGiven the increased social and strategic value of corporate philanthropy (CP) in businesses, a growing number of corporations have established associated corporate foundations to institutionalize and formalize their CP. Notably, CP has been channeled through team charitable foundations in professional sport, which are corporate foundations closely tied to their parent teams while having own (quasi) independent governance structure. However, these corporate foundations have received less scholarly attention. The study explores the relationship between corporate foundation governance and organizational performance in the context of professional sport. Specifically, this study focuses on how board structural characteristics, such as board size and board diversity, and board leadership, such as board chair affiliation with the parent team and the presence of a paid executive director, influence the team foundation's total received contributions. To empirically test our hypotheses, the study used longitudinal data of financial and personnel information of team foundations in the United States from 2011 to 2017. The results show that the team foundations with a larger board and paid executive director generate more significant revenues (received from contributions, grants, and gifts). The study illuminates how the internal governing environment shapes and steers a corporate foundation's philanthropic practices and performance.

Dual effects of corporate philanthropy on firm value: Evidence from China

AbstractThis study demonstrates that corporate philanthropy (CP) has dual attributes by theorizing and testing the existence of rational CP and irrational CP and their opposite effects on firm value. The empirical results show that rational CP has a positive effect on firm value, while irrational CP has a negative effect on firm value. Further analysis shows that the negative effect of irrational CP on firm value is stronger in firms with corporate foundations and in state‐owned firms. The findings can coordinate the theoretical contradiction and empirical divergence between the efficiency view and the agency view existing in the current research.

An Alternative to Improve the Efficiency of Corporate Foundations

An Alternative to Improve the Efficiency of Corporate Foundations

Practice of Participatory Budgeting at the Corporate Foundation

Budget participation in the organization is intended to have a positive effect on control and motivation in achieving goals and public accountability. However, budget participation also sometimes does not work well due to several obstacles, such as miscommunication, lack of commitment, and low motivation to perform. Foundation as a non-profit oriented organization has a unique situation in terms of performance. Performance that is identical to profit oriented applied to non-profit organization certainly has its own phenomenon. Whether a corporate foundation performing better than foundation in general by implementing a participatory budgeting is very interesting to explore. The purpose of this study is to explore the implementation and evaluation of participatory budgeting, particularly in the education sector, at foundation owned by company. This research approach is qualitative with case study on a Company Foundation K. The company foundation is the unit of analysis of this research. The informants involved were teachers, company staff from the Business and Support Division, the Education Office, and staff of foundation from the Education Division. The results of the study indicate that the success of implementation participatory budgeting is influenced by internal schools, such as principals and teachers and external schools, such as regulations from the company and the Education Office/government. The biggest challenge is the inconsistency in the implementation that is different from the planning. Changes in policies and changes in implementation procedures, both internally and externally, affect the staff’s motivation and responsibility for implementing the budget. Thus, the performance of budget absorption, especially at the education sector, has not been optimal can be improved by developing participatory budgeting practices that are transparent, participatory, and accountable. Keywords: Participatory Budget Implementation, Participatory Budget Evaluation, Corporate Foundation, Non-Profit Oriented, Budget Performance .

Can small and medium businesses endure the COVID-19 crisis through strategic philanthropy?

PurposeSmall and medium-sized firms (SMEs) are typically reported to have a limited interest in broader societal concerns across the world. As a result, the purpose of this study is to develop a model of SME’s strategic philanthropic performance in light of the societal reactions to the COVID-19 issue, particularly in terms of the intervention of corporate spirituality and the solid regulatory motive behind these.Design/methodology/approachA systematic mixed review analysis has been executed to analyze the strategic philanthropic performance configuration triggered by the recent COVID-19 crisis, in which over 369 publications are read and reviewed by the authors. It has also established the reliability and validity of literature analysis. Also besides, a short form of qualitative investigation has been used to support the direction of the study.FindingsThrough regulatory adjustments, the study's findings effectively developed a strategic philanthropic performance configuration for SMEs. In this case, the strategic philanthropic convergence of corporate giving, corporate volunteering, corporate foundation and food bank has the potential to help SMEs thrive in the long run. The study also discovers that corporate spirituality might potentially mediate between appropriate regulations and strategic philanthropic performance of SMEs in the context of a supportive external environment.Research limitations/implicationsPrior empirical attempts are subsequently required to inquiry about the proposed conceptualization from different perspectives.Practical implicationsThe decision-makers of SMEs, with the efficient implementation of the proposed outline, will use the understanding given for their required actions to develop the competitive advantage in terms of social concerns. On this note, the outcomes of the study can also enhance business differentiation and competitiveness. It can also serve as a strategic guideline for firms to develop organizational values for long-term survival.Social implicationsIn the COVID-19 reality, SMEs will contribute to the concerns through philanthropy activities that are better suited for both enhanced social good and greater corporate advantages. The idea can also serve as a basis for SMEs to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first research that conceptualizes the influence of government regulation on the strategic philanthropic performance of SMEs while taking corporate spirituality into account in order to survive the COVID-19 crisis.

Communicating stakeholder engagement and its quality: analyzing the CSR reports of the leading Chinese companies

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to investigate how the leading Chinese companies communicate their stakeholder engagement (SE) practices in CSR reports and the quality of such practices. A quantitative content analysis was employed to examine SE-related content of 98 CSR annual reports from Fortune 200 Chinese companies. Informed by prior research, a SE disclosure index was created to examine to what extent the leading Chinese companies reported their daily SE practices. Moreover, a SE evaluation framework was introduced and applied to further examine the quality of SE practices applied to consumers, employees, and communities. The study shows that the leading Chinese companies generally incorporated SE-related content as a salient component in their CSR reports, disclosed important items about their SE practices, and adopted varied approaches to engage with the three stakeholders. Moreover, SE disclosure thoroughness and quality were associated with the economic industry a company belongs to, the presence of a corporate foundation, and the existence of a CSR committee within the board of directors.

Exploring the Giving Strategies, Opportunities, and Challenges of Corporate Foundations in Ghana

ABSTRACT While studies on corporate philanthropy have blossomed in recent times, little is known empirically about its practice formalized through foundations. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with seven corporate foundations, this paper explored the giving strategies, opportunities, and challenges of corporate foundations in Ghana. Our findings based on thematic analysis revealed that corporate foundations rely on a combination of strategies (request, media-lead, adoption, and contest) to identify potential beneficiaries and implement their giving programs. Further evidence indicates that giving of corporate foundations presents opportunities to the foundations themselves (serve society, get partnership offers from other companies, and obtain goodwill from the public) and their parent companies (indirect business and advertising opportunities). Nonetheless, corporate foundation giving is constrained by insufficient funding, lack of support from stakeholders, managing expectations of individuals, poor maintenance culture, and cultural rites. The findings have implications for practitioners as it present insights that could serve as a model to guide new entrants into the corporate foundation landscape of developing economies. In addition, the findings could assist the development of government interventions necessary to foster more formalized corporate giving.

Competitive Dynamics of Corporate Activism: Asymmetric Responses from Ideological Ally and Opponent

This paper investigates how corporate advocacy can produce unexpected consequences by triggering mobilization from opposing ideological interests. Recent research on corporate political ideologies suggests that ideological firms—firms whose organizational members are ideologically engaged—are the main and early participants in advocacy issues of contentious nature. However, what remains underexplored is whether and how the actions of ideological firms affect other firms in the population, especially the possibility that actions of ideological firms can be met by strong ideological opposition from their competitors, which can strategically differentiate themselves in doing so and gain competitive advantage. Using uniquely detailed records of U.S. corporate foundations’ philanthropic giving to 4,021 advocacy nonprofits from 2003 to 2015, we find strong evidence that ideological firms’ giving encourages a stronger response of giving from their ideological opponents than from their ideological allies in the issue area of their choice. We also find that such asymmetry in the response between ideological opponents and allies is moderated by firm-level, issue-level and market-level contingencies, such that the asymmetry is stronger among ideologically homogeneous firms, in issues that involve higher contention, and when firms face strong labor market competition. These results advance our understanding on the dynamics of ideological competition at play in the market of advocacy giving, and suggest that, without accounting for the structure of ideological competition, ideological firms’ advocacy actions may backfire, leading to increased conflict and polarization.

Retrospective sampling of survival data based on a Poisson birth process: conditional maximum likelihood

Truncated survival data are observed retrospectively, if the death event falls into the study period. We find that estimating the survival distribution requires a model for the birth event. With births generated by a parametric Poisson process, we analyse the likelihood of parametric survival, stochastically independent of birth. Conditioning on the number of observed units reduces the number of parameters by one, and to two in our application. The compact support of an observation simplifies the proof of consistency. Furthermore, that we only need to show identification separately for the birth and the death distribution is helpful for demonstrating asymptotic normality. For identification of the survival parameters, a stronger criterion is needed than for a simple random sample, but is fulfilled in our application. In a simulation study, we find that the variance inflation by truncation can be substantial, and apparently is indeed so in our application. From 55,000 German companies that went insolvent between 2014 and 2016, we infer an average time to insolvency of six years and a negative linear trend of corporate foundations after the German reunification in 1990. Companies in Northern Germany survive longer than in the south.

Stewardship purpose planning with Dutch private foundations in an international context

Abstract There is a growing interest of wealthy families in stewardship ownership planning, which stems from developments in society and an increased awareness on the wise long-term use of wealth in a modern society, following long-standing examples in the North European culture. In the common law part of the world, these developments are driven by international financial centres with a quick adaptive mind, now followed by discussions on the development of trust law more generally. In the classic European foundation legislations, pure stewardship planning is stretching the legal limits as well and most often, the most likely option is the use of the strictly regulated charitable foundation. The author describes the distinct approaches from a comparative and Dutch stewardship perspective based on a corporate foundation model, that historically allows a self-serving or purely stewardship ownership structure. These stewardship foundations are not structured with the intention to serve private interests of the family that divested their ownership and should not be regarded as an APV or similar target of anti-abuse legislation that applies to discretionary private trusts and foundations.

Team Ownership and Philanthropy in Professional Sport: A Perspective on Organizational Generosity.

Corporate philanthropy (CP) is a vehicle for businesses to create a social impact in communities where their operations are located. An overlooked aspect of this phenomenon is the role and function played by CP influencers within firms—particularly organizational principals/owners. Using an upper echelons perspective, this study explores the relationship between team ownership and the level of CP in the professional sport context. To this end, longitudinal data of philanthropic giving of 94 U.S. professional sport teams in the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL were collected. We also collected team owner characteristics such as individual/family ownership, age, tenure as team owner, other charitable work, educational background, and connection to community from a variety of publicly available sources. The findings revealed that team owner age, ownership tenure, and previous philanthropic involvement contributed to increased charitable giving in professional sport team corporate foundations. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.