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Full-Text Articles in Business
Social Performance Feedback And Firm Communication Strategy, Heli Wang, Ming Jia, Yi Xiang, Yang Lan
Social Performance Feedback And Firm Communication Strategy, Heli Wang, Ming Jia, Yi Xiang, Yang Lan
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
Although corporate social performance has become an important measure of firm performance, there is little understanding about how firms respond to social performance feedback and how impression management may function as an important firm response to the feedback. Building upon and extending the literature on the behavioral theory of the firm and the strategic use of language, we examine how discrepancies between firms’ social performance and their aspiration levels affect how firms use visual expressions in their CSR reports. In addition, we argue that the relationship between social performance discrepancies and the use of visual expressions in CSR reports is …
The Effects Of Csr Reputation And Csr Crisis Response Strategy On Investor Judgments, Clarence Goh
The Effects Of Csr Reputation And Csr Crisis Response Strategy On Investor Judgments, Clarence Goh
Research Collection School Of Accountancy
I use a controlled experiment to examine, in the context of CSR crises, whether investors’ investment judgments are influenced by a firm’s CSR reputation and CSR crisis response strategy. I find that for good CSR reputation firms, the use of a rebuild or deny crisis response strategy does not lead to improvements in investment judgments. However, for bad CSR reputation firms, the use of a deny response strategy leads to improvements in investment judgments while the use of a rebuild strategy does not.
Why Companies Practice Corporate Social Responsibility, Shawn Pope, Alwyn Lim
Why Companies Practice Corporate Social Responsibility, Shawn Pope, Alwyn Lim
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The article discussed why companies practice corporate social responsibility (CSR) and their meta-analysis of 200 surveys over 20 years found that CSR is often embraced as a “halo” strategy.
What Drives Companies To Do Good? A “Universal” Ordering Of Corporate Social Responsibility Motivation, Alwyn Lim, Shawn Pope
What Drives Companies To Do Good? A “Universal” Ordering Of Corporate Social Responsibility Motivation, Alwyn Lim, Shawn Pope
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The classic question of why companies do corporate social responsibility (CSR) is central to much theoretical, regression-based, and experimental research. Guiding research into this question is a tripartite schema of normative, instrumental, and political CSR motivations that has become increasingly established in the CSR literature. This paper challenges the schema’s status as a typology of equally plausible alternatives through an integration and analysis of a worldwide literature of 120 existing academic surveys on CSR motivation. Rather, the paper reformulates the schema into a surveyed ordering of CSR motivations that might be called “universal” in having remarkable stability across time periods, …
The Impacts Of Ethical Philosophy On The Corporate Hypocrisy Perception And Communication Intentions Toward Csr, Kyujin Shim, Jeong-Nam Kim
The Impacts Of Ethical Philosophy On The Corporate Hypocrisy Perception And Communication Intentions Toward Csr, Kyujin Shim, Jeong-Nam Kim
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
This study investigates how perceptions of corporate hypocrisy from the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities connect the public’s ethical philosophy to subsequent positive/negative opinion-sharing intention. With special attention to deontology and consequentialism in normative ethics of philosophy, the current study empirically tests a theoretical model of perceived corporate hypocrisy with two causal antecedents (i.e., individual moral philosophy of deontology and consequentialism), and the mediating role of corporate hypocrisy between such antecedents and the publics’ subsequent communication intention (i.e., positive and negative opinion-sharing intentions) toward a firm. Results indicate significant mediation effects of corporate hypocrisy between personal ethical orientations and the …
Foreign Subsidiary Csr As A Buffer Against Parent Firm Reputation Risk, Nan Zhou, Heli Wang
Foreign Subsidiary Csr As A Buffer Against Parent Firm Reputation Risk, Nan Zhou, Heli Wang
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
This study examines the influence of parent firm reputation risk on the level of corporate social responsibility activities of foreign subsidiaries. We first argue that a strong reputation risk spillover occurs from parent firms to their foreign subsidiaries due to the high visibility of multinationals, the control of parent firms over their subsidiaries, and the liability of foreignness associated with foreign firms in host countries. Then, we argue that subsidiaries may resort to CSR in their host country to reduce the spillover effect. Thus, we hypothesize a positive relationship between parent firm reputation risk and foreign subsidiary CSR activities. Moreover, …
Editors' Comments: Is Corporate Social Responsibility Research Undertheorized?, Heli Wang, Cristina Gibson, Udo Zander
Editors' Comments: Is Corporate Social Responsibility Research Undertheorized?, Heli Wang, Cristina Gibson, Udo Zander
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept that has brought about both progress and controversy. Under the banner of CSR, we have made progress in addressing some of the world’s most pressing challenges, yet corporations still struggle to figure out where, how, and when to devote their social efforts, and doubts abound as to whether corporate efforts are truly in the public’s best interest. Scholarly interest in CSR research has also flourished. As a pervasive topic in the business literature, CSR is being addressed not only in the management field but also in the domains of economics, finance, marketing, operations, …
Peer Effects Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Jie Cao, Hao Liang, Xintong Zhan
Peer Effects Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Jie Cao, Hao Liang, Xintong Zhan
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
We investigate how firms react to their product-market peers' commitment to and adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) using a regression discontinuity design approach. Relying on the passage or failure of CSR proposals by a narrow margin of votes during shareholder meetings, we find the passage of a close-call CSR proposal and its implementation are followed by the adoption of similar CSR practices by peer firms. In addition, peers that have greater difficulty in catching up with the voting firm in CSR experience significantly lower stock returns around the passage, consistent with the notion that the spillover effect of the …
Dare To Be Different? Conformity Versus Differentiation In Corporate Social Activities Of Chinese Firms And Market Responses, Yanlong Zhang, Heli Wang, Xiaoyu Zhou
Dare To Be Different? Conformity Versus Differentiation In Corporate Social Activities Of Chinese Firms And Market Responses, Yanlong Zhang, Heli Wang, Xiaoyu Zhou
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
Building on the literature on optimal distinctiveness, this study explores the effects of conformity and differentiation in corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on the evaluations by security analysts and the responses of the financial market in general. We develop the argument that while conformity in CSR scope enhances analyst coverage, differentiation in CSR emphasis leads to more-favorable analyst recommendations and higher market value. This suggests that firms may be able to simultaneously conform in CSR scope and differentiate in CSR emphasis to achieve optimal distinctiveness. To further enhance our understanding of the variation in the relationship between conformity/differentiation and the …
Text Analytics Approach To Examining Corporate Social Responsibility, Nurul Asyikeen Binte Azhar, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Andrew Koh, Wan Ying Tay
Text Analytics Approach To Examining Corporate Social Responsibility, Nurul Asyikeen Binte Azhar, Gary Pan, Poh Sun Seow, Andrew Koh, Wan Ying Tay
Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems
This research article explores a text analyticsapproach to assess the prominence of corporate social responsibility in 554Singapore-listed firms through a content analysis of the news. Instead ofrelying on publications by the firms, third-party news coverage is used toreduce potential biases due to over-reporting. A dataset of news articles onthe included firms published during fiscal years 2015 and 2016 is crawled, andthe articles’ content is parsed to search for information related to corporatesocial responsibility. Graph theory is subsequently used to create acollaborative network of listed firms’ corporate social responsibilityactivities. The results highlight a more automated and scalable means ofassessing the prominence …
Reading Between The Lines: Not All Csr Is Good Csr, David K. Ding, Christo Ferreira, Udomsak Wongchoti
Reading Between The Lines: Not All Csr Is Good Csr, David K. Ding, Christo Ferreira, Udomsak Wongchoti
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
Purpose: This paper aims to investigate whether corporate social responsibility (CSR), as evidenced in annual financial reports, is associated with a firm’s financial performance in New Zealand. Design/methodology/approach: A word count approach of several key CSR indicators found in the audited financial reports of NZX50 constituent firms is used. Several variables are constructed that measure the presence of CSR within the annual report such as sustainability, responsibility, social, environment, diversity, employee and community, and eight other variables within the annual report that measure the penetration of stakeholder engagement. Control variables and alternative measures of CSR are also included. Descriptive statistics …
Cross-Country Evidence On The Role Of Independent Media In Constraining Corporate Tax Aggressiveness, Kiridaran Kanagaretnam, Jimmy Lee, Chee Yeow Lim, Gerald J. Lobo
Cross-Country Evidence On The Role Of Independent Media In Constraining Corporate Tax Aggressiveness, Kiridaran Kanagaretnam, Jimmy Lee, Chee Yeow Lim, Gerald J. Lobo
Research Collection School Of Accountancy
Using an international sample of firms from 32 countries, we study the relation between media independence and corporate tax aggressiveness. We measure media independence by the extent of private ownership and competition in the media industry. Using an indicator variable for tax aggressiveness when the firm’s corporate tax avoidance measure is within the top quartile of each country-industry combination, we find strong evidence that media independence is associated with a lower likelihood of tax aggressiveness, after controlling for other institutional determinants, including home-country tax system characteristics. We also find that the effect of media independence is more pronounced when the …
Keeping Investors Onboard: A Corporate Social Responsibility Crisis Response Framework, Clarence Goh
Keeping Investors Onboard: A Corporate Social Responsibility Crisis Response Framework, Clarence Goh
Research Collection School Of Accountancy
There is evidence to suggest that managers use CSR reporting as a means to manage their firms’ CSR reputations. In this study, I jointly examine CSR reputation and CSR crisis response in the context of CSR crises, and how they can influence investor judgments and decision making. In particular, in the context of CSR crises, I build on situational crisis communication theory to develop a CSR crisis response framework which managers can use to examine and understand how specific types of CSR crises can influence their firm’s CSR reputations, which can in turn influence investor judgments and decision making. Following …
When Corporate Social Responsibility Motivates Employee Citizenship Behavior: The Sensitizing Role Of Task Significance, Madeline Ong, David M. Mayer, P. Tost Leigh, Ned Wellman
When Corporate Social Responsibility Motivates Employee Citizenship Behavior: The Sensitizing Role Of Task Significance, Madeline Ong, David M. Mayer, P. Tost Leigh, Ned Wellman
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
Scholars have proposed that organizations’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts are often positively associated with employees’ organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and have invoked identity-based mechanisms to explain this relationship. Complementing these perspectives, we develop a CSR sensitivity framework that explains how task significance, a micro-level job characteristic, can sensitize employees to their organizations’ macro-level CSR efforts, thereby strengthening the association between CSR and OCB. Across three field studies, we find that CSR and task significance interact to predict OCB, such that an organization’s CSR is more positively associated with OCB among employees who report higher task significance than among those …
On The Foundations Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Hao Liang, Luc Renneboog
On The Foundations Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Hao Liang, Luc Renneboog
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
A firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) practice and its country’s legal origin are strongly correlated. This relation is valid for various CSR ratings coming from several large datasets that comprise more than 23,000 large companies from 114 countries. We find that CSR is more strongly and consistently related to legal origins than to “doing good by doing well”-factors, and most firm and country characteristics such as ownership concentration, political institutions, and degree of globalization. In particular, companies from common law countries have lower level of CSR than companies from civil law countries, and Scandinavian civil law firms assume highest level …
Socially Responsible Firms, Allen Ferrell, Hao Liang, Luc Renneboog
Socially Responsible Firms, Allen Ferrell, Hao Liang, Luc Renneboog
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
In the corporate finance tradition, starting with Berle and Means (1932), corporations should generally be run to maximize shareholder value. The agency view of corporate social responsibility (CSR) considers CSR an agency problem and a waste of corporate resources. Given our identification strategy by means of an instrumental variable approach, we find that well-governed firms that suffer less from agency concerns (less cash abundance, positive pay-for-performance, small control wedge, strong minority protection) engage more in CSR. We also find that a positive relation exists between CSR and value and that CSR attenuates the negative relation between managerial entrenchment and value.
Socially Responsible Firms, Allen Ferrell, Hao Liang, Luc Renneboog
Socially Responsible Firms, Allen Ferrell, Hao Liang, Luc Renneboog
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
In the corporate finance tradition starting with Berle & Means (1923), corporations should generally be run so as to maximize shareholder value. The agency view of corporate social responsibility (CSR) considers CSR as an agency problem and a waste of corporate resources. Given our identification strategy by means of an IV approach, we find that well-governed firms who suffer less from agency concerns (less cash abundance, positive pay-for-performance, small control wedge, strong minority protection) engage more in CSR. We also find a positive relation between CSR and value and that CSR attenuates the negative relation between managerial entrenchment and value.
The Effect Of Bad Reputation: The Occurrence Of Crisis, Corporate Social Responsibility, And Perceptions Of Hypocrisy And Attitudes Toward A Company, Kyujin Shim, Sung-Un Yang
The Effect Of Bad Reputation: The Occurrence Of Crisis, Corporate Social Responsibility, And Perceptions Of Hypocrisy And Attitudes Toward A Company, Kyujin Shim, Sung-Un Yang
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
Based on attribution theory, this study examines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) and media coverage of corporate reputation, crisis, and CSR history affect the attribution of corporate hypocrisy and subsequently shape attitudes toward a company. The study found that perceptions of corporate hypocrisy mediated corporate reputation and attitudes toward a company during a crisis. The study suggested that CSR might be utilized best when a company has a good reputation with no crisis, whereas corporate hypocrisy is perceived most when a bad reputation and/or a company crisis lead the public to infer ulterior motives in CSR. Theoretical and practical implications …
Firm Litigation Risk And The Insurance Value Of Corporate Social Performance, Ping-Sheng Koh, Cuili Qian, Heli Wang
Firm Litigation Risk And The Insurance Value Of Corporate Social Performance, Ping-Sheng Koh, Cuili Qian, Heli Wang
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
This paper advances the risk management perspective that superior social performance enhances firm value by serving as an ex ante valuable insurance mechanism. We posit that good social performance is more valuable as an insurance mechanism for firms with higher litigation risks. Moreover, value generation of corporate social performance (CSP) depends on whether a firm has gained pragmatic legitimacy (i.e., a firm's financial health) and moral legitimacy (i.e., whether or not a firm operates in a socially contested industry) among its stakeholders. We find that the value of CSP as insurance against litigation risk is practically significant, adding 2 to …
Corporate Social Responsibility – An Idealistic Goal Or A Reality?, Singapore Management University
Corporate Social Responsibility – An Idealistic Goal Or A Reality?, Singapore Management University
Perspectives@SMU
Despite widespread discussion on CSR, there continues to be much disagreement around what constitutes CSR, and how to define it. In addition, the term is often used interchangeably with notions such as corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, triple-bottom line, sustainability, creating shared value, and in some cases, corporate ethics and governance. However, all of these ideas point in the same direction: a sharp escalation in the social roles corporations are expected to play today.
Stepping Up To The Plate, Singapore Management University
Stepping Up To The Plate, Singapore Management University
Perspectives@SMU
Rajesh Chakraborti talks about how CSR is embedded in everything that Reliance does, in an attempt to limit poverty in India.
Moulding The Nascent Corporate Social Responsibility Agenda In Singapore: Of Pragmatism, Soft Regulation, And The Economic Imperative, Eugene K. B. Tan
Moulding The Nascent Corporate Social Responsibility Agenda In Singapore: Of Pragmatism, Soft Regulation, And The Economic Imperative, Eugene K. B. Tan
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
This paper seeks to examine the putative growth of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in Singapore. A key impetus for the nascent CSR movement in twenty-first century Singapore is the economic imperative. As a trade-dependent industrializing economy, the economic development drive coupled with the need for international expansion has made it necessary for Singapore businesses to be cognizant of the growing CSR movement in the western, industrialized world. The government supports the CSR endeavour with an instrumental bent, where CSR ideas and concepts are adapted, incorporated, and promoted in various sectors of the economy. This paper assesses the state’s active encouragement …
Examining The Chinese Approach To Crisis Management: Cover-Ups, Saving Face, And Taking The “Upper Level Line”, Lan Ye, Augustine Pang
Examining The Chinese Approach To Crisis Management: Cover-Ups, Saving Face, And Taking The “Upper Level Line”, Lan Ye, Augustine Pang
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
In 2008, the Sanlu Group, a former giant in the Chinese dairy industry and a quintessential Chinese organization, was confronted with the melamine-contaminated milk crisis. Its products were blamed for causing at least six babies' deaths and damaging the kidneys of about 294,000 babies. Sanlu was criticized for its crisis handling, which resulted in its collapse several months later. Using the contingency theory of strategic conflict management and Coombs' typology of crisis communication strategies, this study explored Sanlu's crisis management as a mirror to understanding the Chinese approach to crisis management. Findings showed that influenced by political, social, and cultural …
Corporate Social Responsibility Reputation Effects On Mba Job Choice: Controlling For Region Of Origin, David B. Montgomery, Catherine A. Ramus
Corporate Social Responsibility Reputation Effects On Mba Job Choice: Controlling For Region Of Origin, David B. Montgomery, Catherine A. Ramus
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
In a preliminary study with 279 MBA’s from two European and three North American business schools we find that reputation-related attributes of caring about employees, environmental sustainability, community/stakeholder relations, and ethical products and services are important in job choice decisions. We use an adaptive conjoint analysis survey tool to discover the relative weighting of a new set of social responsibility job search criteria, including these attributes with traditional job search criteria like financial package, geographical location, etc. In addition, our results show that more than ninety percent of the MBAs in the sample were willing to forgo financial benefits in …
Corporate Social Responsibility Reputation Effects On Mba Job Choice, David B. Montgomery, Catherine A. Ramus
Corporate Social Responsibility Reputation Effects On Mba Job Choice, David B. Montgomery, Catherine A. Ramus
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
In a preliminary study with 279 MBA’s from two European and three North American business schools we find that reputation-related attributes of caring about employees, environmental sustainability, community/ stakeholder relations, and ethical products and services are important in job choice decisions. We use an adaptive conjoint analysis survey tool to discover the relative weighting of a new set of social responsibility job search criteria, including these attributes with traditional job search criteria like financial package, geographical location, etc. In addition, our results show that more than ninety percent of the MBAs in the sample were willing to forgo financial benefits …