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News Visibility and Corporate Philanthropic Response: Evidence from Privately Owned Chinese Firms Following the Wenchuan Earthquake

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Abstract

Considerable interest exists regarding the media’s influence on corporate reactions, but the link between media visibility and corporate philanthropic response (CPR) is not clear. Natural disasters thus provide an environment that makes visible the general processes relevant to that link. Based on agenda-setting theory, stakeholder theory, and impression-management theory, we propose that corporations that are highly visible in the news media are more likely to engage in CPR and donate more money. We also propose that companies with reputations for irresponsibility or vulnerability strengthen that tendency. Data from Chinese firms after the Wenchuan earthquake on May 12, 2008, and the corresponding empirical results support our hypotheses. This study also shows that CPR is an active conduit for deflecting undesired reputations.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71372065; No.71272002; No.71002049), the Supported by Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (No.NCET-11-0816; No.NCET-12-0439), and Technology Foundation for Selected Overseas Chinese Scholar (No. 18920004). We also thank to the Program for Star of Shaanxi Youth Science and Technology (grant no. 2013KJXX-52). The authors also express their appreciation to the section editor Thomas Clarke and two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments. However, the authors are responsible for all errors in the paper.

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  1. School of Management, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, Shaanxi, China

    Ming Jia

  2. School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, China

    Zhe Zhang

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  1. Ming Jia
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  2. Zhe Zhang
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Correspondence to Zhe Zhang.

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Jia, M., Zhang, Z. News Visibility and Corporate Philanthropic Response: Evidence from Privately Owned Chinese Firms Following the Wenchuan Earthquake. J Bus Ethics 129, 93–114 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2150-7

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