Corporate Social Responsibility Motives Research Articles

To Leave or Stay During the COVID-19 Crisis: Exploring the Impacts of CSR Motives on Employee Distrust and Turnover Intentions

ABSTRACT In response to the increasing prominence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study investigates the interplay between employees’ perceived CSR motives, distrust in their employer, perceived crisis controllability, and turnover intention. Using a structural equation model and data from a survey of 740 U.S. employees, our findings indicate that intrinsic CSR heightens employees’ distrust in their organization, whereas extrinsic CSR reduces it. This distrust intensifies employees’ turnover intentions. Employees’ perceived crisis controllability, a personal risk assessment of the situation, mediates the relationship between employee distrust and turnover intention. The theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.

Benchmarking of corporate social responsibility in China

This study explores the underexplored application of benchmarking in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among Chinese A-listed companies from 2010 to 2020. The results reveal a positive relationship between CSR performance and local best practices, indicating benchmarking’s influence on CSR activities. Notably, benefits like increased market value, robust revenue, and heightened analyst attention signify positive market signals, motivating companies to enhance their CSR performance. The impacts on CSR performance varies significantly based on leader companies’ CSR scores, ages, and follower companies’ ownership properties, sizes, and locations. Our findings offer valuable insights into CSR motivations and the performance effects of best practices.

Does social trust promote corporate social security contributions?: evidence from China

ABSTRACT Using data from Chinese listed companies between 2012 and 2019, this study examines the effect of social trust on corporate social security contributions. From the perspective of informal institutions, social trust increases the level of corporate social security contributions, and it is more significant in non-state-owned enterprises and strong legal and institutional environments. Based on the analysis of motivation for corporate social responsibility, we find that under the influence of egoism motivation, social trust can promote corporate social security contributions by lowering financing constraints, and it can also promote corporate social security contributions by raising corporate agency costs. Under the influence of altruistic motives, social trust can promote corporate social security contributions by reducing corporate violations.

CEO’s early-life extreme experiences and corporate social responsibility: the moderating role of CEO power

Purpose This study aims to explore the relation between CEO’s early-life extreme experiences and firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) taking while also examining the moderating influence of CEO power. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of public listed companies in China over 2010–2020 (with 6,008 firm-year observations), this study examines the context of multiple early-life extreme experiences by dividing CEO’s early-life extreme experiences into two distinct types: environment-based and individual-based experiences. The environment based early-life experiences include that of World War II and the Great Famine era (1959–1961), while the individual based early-life experiences cover individual experiences from poor families and military services. Findings This study finds that firm with CEOs poses all these early-life experiences tends to have higher CSR taking. Moreover, this study also finds that CEO power enhances the effect of CEO’s early-life extreme experiences on CSR. Originality/value This study provides a new perspective on the role of individual traits in driving altruistic CSR motivations by considering the impact of various events on the CEO’s values, perceptions and decision-making processes. In addition, this study also constructs a multiple-event measure of the early-life extreme experiences of CEOs that combines both external environmental and individual factors.

How Corporate Social Responsibility Motivation Drives Customer Extra-Role Behavior and Green Purchase Intentions: The Role of Ethical Corporate Identity

This study investigates the relationship between the motives behind CSR and consumer extra-role behavior, as well as green purchase intention, specifically within the hospitality industry of an emerging market. This study uses two scenario-based experiments with high and low CSR fit contexts to examine how ethical corporate identity moderates the relationship. Both studies examine the impact of customers’ perceptions of a company’s CSR motivation (public-serving or firm-serving), on their extra-role behavior towards the company and intention to make green purchases. This influence is particularly relevant when the company actively communicates its ethical identity. The first study is conducted within a high-fit setting where the company’s locus aligns with its CSR program. In contrast, the second study replicates the research in a low-fit situation. The results indicate that CSR activities have a favorable effect on customer extra-role behavior and green purchasing intention, regardless of the CSR fit contexts. This effect is shown when the company’s ethical stance is known before engaging in CSR activities and when the goal is to serve the firm. Nevertheless, these endeavors demonstrate limited efficacy in prompting such conduct when the organization’s ethical identity remains implicit, even within a context driven by a desire to serve the public.

Strategic motivations for corporate social responsibility: profitability or legitimacy?

Strategic motivations for corporate social responsibility: profitability or legitimacy?

A novel IFN-CSM-CoCoSo approach for multiple-attribute group decision-making with intuitionistic fuzzy sets: An application in assessing corporate social responsibility performance

With the rapid growth of the economy, enterprises have encountered a series of problems while pursuing economic benefits, such as food safety and environmental pollution issues, resource shortages and energy consumption issues, which affect the sustainable development of enterprises. Establishing a corporate performance evaluation system from the perspective of social responsibility, based on stakeholder theory and the importance of overall goals reflected in the weight of social responsibility indicators, is a very effective measure to achieve corporate social responsibility (CSR) goals through CSR motivation and stakeholders. The performance evaluation of CSR from the perspective of environmental accounting is a MAGDM. Recently, the CoCoSo technique and cosine similarity measure (CSM) technique was utilized to conduct the MAGDM. The intuitionistic fuzzy sets (IFSs) are utilized as a technique for conducting uncertain information during the performance evaluation of CSR from the perspective of environmental accounting. In this study, the intuitionistic fuzzy CoCoSo based on the CSM (IFN-CSM-CoCoSo) technique is built for MAGDM with IFSs. Finally, a numerical example for performance evaluation of CSR from the perspective of environmental accounting is conducted to verify the IFN-CSM-CoCoSo technique.

Corporate social responsibility by joint agreement

Industry-wide voluntary agreements are touted as a means for corporations to take more corporate social responsibility (CSR). We study what type of joint CSR agreement induces competitors to increase CSR efforts in a model of oligopolistic competition with differentiated products. Consumers have a higher willingness to pay for more responsibly produced goods and services. Firms are driven by profit, and are also possibly intrinsically motivated, to invest in CSR. We find that cooperative agreements directly on the level of CSR reduce CSR efforts compared to competition. Such agreements throttle both for-profit and intrinsic motivation for CSR. CSR efforts only increase if agreements are permitted solely on output. Such production agreements, however, reduce total welfare in the market and raise antitrust concerns. Taking externalities into account may help justify a production agreement under a broader welfare standard, but not agreements on CSR directly. Simply setting a higher mandatory CSR standard by regulation while preserving competition always gives higher within-market welfare.

CEOs’ early famine experience, managerial discretion and corporate social responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reflects entrepreneurs’ early life experiences in reality. Based on imprinting theory and upper echelons theory, this paper examines the impact of a CEO’s early famine experience on CSR, analyzes the moderating effects of environmental discretion (market abundance), organizational discretion (slack resources), and CEO discretion (CEO concurrently) on the above relationship, using Chinese manufacturing listed companies from 2010 to 2019 as research samples. Research shows that when CEOs have early famine experiences, their companies have better social responsibility performance. This effect is positively moderated by the environment and organizational discretion and negatively moderated by CEO discretion. Further research finds that when CEOs are in state-owned firms, the positive effect of their early famine experience on CSR will be reinforced. The early famine experience of a turnover CEO has a weakening effect on CSR. The positive performance of CSR is more pronounced for male CEOs’ early famine experience. The early famine experience of CEOs with lower education has a more significant effect on CSR. This study reveals a practical path to improve CSR motivation from CEOs’ early famine experience and provides new evidence for the research about the CEOs’ personal experience and corporate strategic decision-making.

Shareholder primacy or stakeholder pluralism? Environmental shareholder proposals and board responses

PurposeThis study examines shareholder and board motivations regarding corporate social responsibility (CSR) to understand boards' stewardship approaches to environmental issues.Design/methodology/approachUsing content analysis, the authors classify CSR motivations in all environmental shareholder proposals and board responses of Fortune 250 companies from 2013 to 2017 from do little (a shareholder primacy perspective) to do much (a stakeholder pluralism perspective). The authors calculate the motivational dissonance for each proposal-response pair (the Talk Gap) and use cluster analysis to observe evidence of board stewardship and subsequent environmental disclosure and performance (ED&P) changes.FindingsBoard interpretations of stewardship are not uniform, and they regularly extend to stakeholders beyond shareholders, most frequently including profit-oriented stakeholders (e.g. employees and customers). ED&P changes are highest when shareholders narrowly lead boards in CSR motivation and either request both action and information or information only. The authors observe weaker ED&P changes when shareholders request action and the dissonance between shareholders and boards is larger. When shareholders are motivated to do little for CSR, ED&P changes are weak, even when boards express more pluralistic motivations.Research limitations/implicationsThe results show the important role that boards play in CSR and may aid activist shareholders in determining how best to generate change in corporate CSR actions.Originality/valueThis study provides the first evidence of board stewardship at the proposal-response level. It measures shareholder and board CSR motivations, introduces the Talk Gap, and examines relationships among proposal characteristics, the Talk Gap, and subsequent ED&P change to better understand board stewardship of environmental issues.

Predicting cause-related marketing patronage intentions, corporate social responsibility motives and moderating role of spirituality

PurposeRecent studies have observed rise in consumer’s ethical concerns about the online retailers while making a purchase decision. The impetus for businesses to use corporate social responsibility (CSR) is evident, but the effects of CSR motives on corresponding processes underlying cause-related marketing (CRM) patronage intention have not been thoroughly examined. This study, anchored on attribution theory, established a research model that better explains the influence of CSR motives on patronage intentions toward CRM-oriented online retailers. Additionally, this study aims to examine the moderating role of spirituality (SPT) on CSR motives and CRM patronage intention (CPI).Design/methodology/approachPrimary data has been collected from 722 respondents and analyzed by using deep neural-network architecture by using the innovative PLS-SEM-ANN method to predict/rank the factors impacting CPI.FindingsThe results revealed the normalized importance of the predictors of CPI and found that value-driven motive was the strongest predictor, followed by strategic motive, SPT, age and stakeholder-driven motive. In contrast, egoistic motive, education and income were found insignificant.Originality/valueThe pandemic has transformed the way consumers shop and fortified the online economy, thereby resulting in a paradigm shift toward usage of e-commerce platforms. The results offer valuable insights to online retailers and practitioners for predicting patronage intentions by CSR motives and, thus, effectively engage CRM consumers by designing promotions in a way that would deeply resonate with them. This study assessed and predicted the factors influencing the CPI s, thereby guiding the online retailers to design CSR strategies and manage crucial CRM decisions.

Building trust after pollution emergency: A strategic perspective on corporate social responsibility

We use extreme regional pollution emergencies to provide new evidence regarding the motivations for corporate social responsibility (CSR). We document that local firms strategically improve CSR to build trust following pollution emergencies, and this is specifically true for highly polluting firms. Firms face different intensities of external pressure from their stakeholders. In particular, following pollution emergencies, political dependency, institutional investors and public monitoring are the main sources of stakeholder pressure and drivers of the increased CSR. We further find that firms that gain trust through CSR activities after pollution emergencies are rewarded. CSR serves as a buffer against financial constraints, financing distress and the negative profitability effect following emergencies. This study contributes to the CSR literature on trust-building-motivated CSR strategies.

Employees go green: the roles of perceived CSR and intrinsic motivation

PurposeThis study investigates how and when employees' perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) encourages their workplace pro-environmental behavior (WPB).Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from 189 employees of different industries in southern China. Data were analyzed using PROCESS macro.FindingsThis study found that intrinsic motivation mediated the relationship between perceived CSR and WPB. Furthermore, self-concern strengthened the indirect perceived CSR–WPB link.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existing literature of micro-CSR by highlighting intrinsic motivation as a mediating mechanism explaining how employees' perceived CSR encourages WPB. In addition, studying the moderating effects of other-orientation and self-concern enriches the understanding of when perceived CSR may or may not stimulate employees' WPB.

Evaluating the Enablers of Green Entrepreneurship in Circular Economy: Organizational Enablers in Focus

In recent decades, green entrepreneurship has been at the center of attention as an effective strategy to maintain sustainability and create a competitive advantage for organizations in a circular economy. However, the successful implementation of this strategy requires organizations to have internal enablers. This study endeavored to identify and evaluate organizational enablers for green entrepreneurship in manufacturing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Iran. Identifying organizational enablers can help SMEs in facilitating the conditions for adopting green entrepreneurship. To these ends, organizational enablers were extracted by reviewing the literature and then, using the viewpoints of 17 active experts in different industries in SMEs, they were classified. In the next step, the “Best Worst Method” was employed to prioritize the identified enablers (5 factors) and sub-enablers (20 factors). The contextual hierarchical relationships between these factors were identified through the “Interpretive Structural Modeling” method. Using the Matrix of Cross-Impact Multiplications Applied to Classification (MICMAC) analysis, the driving and dependence powers of organizational enablers were computed and the enablers were clustered. Based on the results, among the five enablers, three including total quality management, circular supply chain management, and corporate social responsibility were the most important from the point of view of the experts. Moreover, among the sub-enablers, strategic planning, green purchasing, and corporate social responsibility motivation were more important than other sub-enablers. The results of ISM analysis provided a seven-level hierarchical model and the relationships between them. The results of the MICMAC analysis led to the clustering of 20 organizational enablers in three main clusters: driving (nine factors), linkage (four factors), and dependent (seven factors). The results of this study provide practical suggestions for active senior managers to implement green entrepreneurship in SMEs.

Status, Wellbeing, and Behavior at Work or in College

This paper investigates how consumers’ perceived motivations for corporate social responsibility (CSR) influence retail store re-visit intentions, and how consumers’ cultural beliefs influence consumers’ perception of CSR activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. Two studies were conducted, the first one was in 2021 when the pandemic was severe and the second was in early 2023 when the pandemic was less severe. Regression results suggest community-motivated (vs. firm-motivated) policy has a substantial positive impact on customers’ re-visit intentions. Moderated mediation models suggest perceived “fit” between CSR policy and Covid-19 mediates the impact of perceived motivation on re-visit intention. Further, results suggest that consumer collectivism and uncertainty avoidance negatively moderate the indirect effect of perceived motivation on customers’ re-visit intention when the pandemic was most severe (study 1). Moreover, the negative moderation effects on consumer revisit intention disappeared when the pandemic became less of a concern (study 2). Summarily, our results indicate consumers favored community-motivated (vs. firm-motivated) CSR policy, and as consumers’ collectivism and uncertainty avoidance increased, re-visit intention was negatively impacted, suggesting this consumer group favors social norms of reducing virus spread and avoiding potential risks by reducing store re-visits under the severe pandemic condition. Overall, the results suggest that regardless of the motivations for adopting CSR activities, managers should focus on improving the relevance and contribution of their CSR policies to help communities cope with a crisis. Other theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The differential impact of substantive and symbolic CSR attribution on job satisfaction and turnover intention

AbstractEmployees have their own understandings of corporate social responsibility (CSR) motives. This study investigated whether employees' different perceptions of CSR motives, including substantive CSR attribution and symbolic CSR attribution, influence their work attitudes, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. Moreover, we explore the mediating role of person‐organization fit in the relationships among CSR attribution, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. We collected 687 responses for an overall response rate of 16%. The results of structural equation model (SEM) analyses show that substantive CSR attribution decreases employee turnover intention and that symbolic CSR attribution increases employee turnover intention. Based on these results, we provide relevant theoretical and managerial implications.

Flattery will get you somewhere, sometimes? The effect of flattery and hotel segments on a hotel guests' green behavior

AbstractConsidering the importance of the hotel guests' behavioral support for the hotels' green corporate social responsibility (CSR), this research examined the persuasive power of flattery in promoting guests' green behaviors. Study 1 revealed that a flattery message significantly increased the hotel guests' towel reuse intentions during their stay and this effect was mediated by their perceptions of the hotel's CSR motives. Study 2 further showed that a feeling of guilt served as another key mediator in the relationship between a flattery message and the guests' responses (i.e., perceived CSR motives, hotel image, attitudes toward a hotel, towel reuse intentions), which was moderated by hotel segment (economy vs. mid‐priced vs. luxury). This research provides meaningful insights into the understanding of the consumers' pro‐environmental decisions in the service consumption context and explains the underlying cognitive process. Moreover, this research offers an empirical message strategy by hotel segments to effectively promote the hotel guests' green behavior and achieve successful marketing outcomes.

CSR Perceptions and Brand Attitudes in Chinese Luxury Hospitality: The Moderating Effect of Ads vs. Media Reports

The fit between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and luxury is a debated topic and there is limited understanding regarding how the CSR initiatives of a luxury hotel are differently perceived and responded to by customers. The present study analysed the fit between CSR and luxury in China’s luxury hospitality industry by investigating customers’ CSR perceptions as well as their brand attitudes. According to the attribution of CSR motives, this study classified consumers’ four CSR perceptions, including CSR washing, corporate hypocrisy, corporate citizenship, and shared value creation. An experimental study was implemented with 400 luxury customers. It was found that when the CSR information of a hotel was disclosed by advertisements, participants reported stronger perceptions of CSR washing and corporate hypocrisy as well as weaker perceptions of corporate citizenship and shared value creation than when the CSR information was disclosed by media reports. Different CSR perceptions were found to differently influence customers’ brand attitudes. Their brand attitudes were positively influenced by the perceptions of corporate citizenship and shared value creation and were negatively influenced by the perceptions of CSR washing and corporate hypocrisy. In view of this, the present study argued that the fit between CSR and luxury in the hospitality industry is associated with whether consumers perceive CSR initiatives positively or negatively.

Corporate social responsibility and customer's responses: CSR authenticity and government intervention during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 had unparalleled social and economic impacts in many countries, including Indonesia. Companies are urged to develop corporate social responsibility (CSR) in this challenging environment to support society. As CSR enters a more developed stage, the government's role in initiating and promoting it has also been recognized. First, this study explores the company's motives for engaging in CSR, as well as the role of government by interviewing three CSR officials. Further, this study investigates the effects of CSR motives, CSR authenticity, and corporate brand image on community well-being and customer citizenship behavior, with government intervention as a moderating variable, by an online survey to analyze nine hypotheses. Using purposive sampling, 652 respondents from five local companies in Indonesia participated in the survey, and the data were analyzed using SmartPLS. The interviews showed two CSR motives and the role of government, and the survey showed mixed results on the impact of CSR motives on CSR authenticity and corporate brand image, the positive impacts of CSR authenticity and corporate brand image on community well-being, and customer citizenship behavior. Although high levels of government intervention are noticeable, this variable was not found to be a significant moderator. This study highlights the importance of how customers perceive CSR motives and authenticity, so companies should consider it when developing CSR activities. Engaging in CSR initiatives during a crisis may improve a company's brand image and customer citizenship behavior. However, companies should appropriately manage their CSR communications to avoid customers' suspicion about the CSR motives.

Vocabularies of Motive for Corporate Social Responsibility: The Emergence of the Business Case in Germany, 1970–2014

The business case constitutes an important instrumental motive for corporate social responsibility (CSR), but its relationship with other moral and relational motives remains controversial. In this article, we examine the articulation of motives for CSR among different stakeholders in Germany historically. On the basis of reports of German business associations, state agencies, unions, and nongovernmental organizations from 1970 to 2014, we show how the business case came to be a dominant motive for CSR by acting as a coalition magnet: the vocabulary was used strategically by key policy entrepreneurs, while being ambiguous for flexible interpretations by different stakeholders, and thereby growing in attractiveness. As a resulting discourse coalition emerged among business, state, and civil society actors, the moral and relational motives for CSR became increasingly marginalized. The article offers a new approach to studying motives and contributes to understanding the complementary or competing nature of different motives for CSR.