Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Culture And Firms, Zhihui Gu, Hao Liang, Hanyu Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We study how societal culture shapes business activities and corporate behavior by leveraging data on the locations of Confucian schools in Ancient China. The number of historic Confucian schools surrounding a current firm’s location proxies for the firm’s exposure to Confucianism, the dominant culture in China over the last two thou- sand years, and is immune to the subjectivity and selection problems of most culture measures. We find systematic differences in corporate behavior across regions based on their varying exposure to Confucianism. Listed companies more exposed Confucianism make greater social contributions, provide greater employee protection, and have higher entertainment expenses, …