Skip to main content
Log in

Local Support for the Corporate New Investment Project: The Roles of Corporate Reputation, Project’s CSR Behavior and Residential Income Level

  • Published:
Asia Pacific Journal of Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The study investigated how corporate reputation (i.e., generalized favorability), motivation attribution of corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviors, and income level impact local residents’ support for a corporate new investment project (CNIP). By analyzing 133 new investment projects of listed firms in China from 2004 to 2017, we found that local residents’ support for a CNIP can be positively influenced by generalized favorability and motivation attribution of CSR behaviors, but negatively influenced by their income level. The positive effect of generalized favorability is more effective when the motivation of CSR behaviors is attributed to higher altruism. Meanwhile, the interaction between generalized favorability and income level reveals that the positive effect of generalized favorability is stronger when local residents are at a higher income level. Our results also show that when altruism and income level are at a low level, the positive effect of generalized favorability will be overturned and its negative effect will emerge. Overall, this study contributes to the research on corporate reputation, CSR behavior and corporate project management.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. http://www.npc.gov.cn/wxzl/gongbao/2016-08/22/content_1995717.htm

  2. http://www.mee.gov.cn/gkml/sthjbgw/qt/201009/t20100914_194484.htm

References

  • Abdellaoui, M., Bleichrodt, H., l’Haridon, O., & Van Dolder, D. 2016. Measuring loss aversion under ambiguity: A method to make prospect theory completely observable. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 52(1): 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bromiley, P. 2010. Looking at prospect theory. Strategic Management Journal, 31(12): 1357–1370.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chava, S. 2014. Environmental externalities and cost of capital. Management Science, 60(9): 2223–2247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chernev, A., & Blair, S. 2015. Doing well by doing good: The benevolent halo of corporate social responsibility. Journal of Consumer Research, 41(6): 1412–1425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, W. A., & Lisowski, W. 2017. Prospect theory and the decision to move or stay. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(36): E7432–E7440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connelly, B. L., Certo, S. T., Ireland, R. D., & Reutzel, C. R. 2011. Signaling theory: A review and assessment. Journal of Management, 37(1): 39–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coombs, W. T. 1995. Choosing the right words: The development of guidelines for the selection of the “appropriate” crisis-response strategies. Management Communication Quarterly, 8(4): 447–476.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crilly, D., Ni, N., & Jiang, Y. 2016. Do-no-harm versus do-good social responsibility: Attributional thinking and the liability of foreignness. Strategic Management Journal, 37(7): 1316–1329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dear, M. 1992. Understanding and overcoming the NIMBY syndrome. Journal of the American Planning Association, 58(3): 288–300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deephouse, D. L. 2000. Media reputation as a strategic resource: An integration of mass communication and resource-based theories. Journal of Management, 26(6): 1091–1112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dorobantu, S., & Odziemkowska, K. 2017. Valuing stakeholder governance: Property rights, community mobilization, and firm value. Strategic Management Journal, 38(13): 2682–2703.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du, X., Chang, Y., Zeng, Q., Du, Y., & Pei, H. 2016. Corporate environmental responsibility (CER) weakness, media coverage, and corporate philanthropy: Evidence from China. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 33(2): 551–581.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellen, P. S., Webb, D. J., & Mohr, L. A. 2006. Building corporate associations: Consumer attributions for corporate socially responsible programs. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 34(2): 147–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, E., & Reuber, R. 2007. The good, the bad, and the unfamiliar: The challenges of reputation formation facing new firms. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 31(1): 53–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fiske, S. T., & Taylor, S. E. 1991. Social cognition. New York:Mcgraw-Hill Book.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fombrun, C. J. 1996. Reputation: Realizing value from the corporate image. Boston:Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frooman, J. 1999. Stakeholder influence strategies. Academy of Management Review, 24(2): 191–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gattiker, T. F., & Carter, C. R. 2010. Understanding project champions’ ability to gain intra-organizational commitment for environmental projects. Journal of Operations Management, 28(1): 72–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibbons, R., & Henderson, R. 2012. Relational contracts and organizational capabilities. Organization Science, 23(5): 1350–1364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, D. T., & Malone, P. S. 1995. The correspondence bias. Psychological Bulletin, 117(1): 21–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Godfrey, P. C., Merrill, C. B., & Hansen, J. M. 2009. The relationship between corporate social responsibility and shareholder value: An empirical test of the risk management hypothesis. Strategic Management Journal, 30(4): 425–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Handelman, J. M., & Arnold, S. J. 1999. The role of marketing actions with a social dimension: Appeals to the institutional environment. Journal of Marketing, 63(3): 33–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henisz, W. J., Dorobantu, S., & Nartey, L. J. 2014. Spinning gold: The financial returns to stakeholder engagement. Strategic Management Journal, 35(12): 1727–1748.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hou, M., Liu, H., Fan, P., & Wei, Z. 2016. Does CSR practice pay off in east Asian firms? A meta-analytic investigation. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 33(1): 195–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Husted, B. W., & de Jesus Salazar, J. 2006. Taking Friedman seriously: Maximizing profits and social performance. Journal of Management Studies, 43(1): 75–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingram, P., Yue, L. Q., & Rao, H. 2010. Trouble in store: Probes, protests, and store openings by Wal-Mart, 1998–2007. American Journal of Sociology, 116(1): 53–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kerzner, H. 1992. Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. New York:Van Nostrand Reinhold.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kilpatrick, R. W. 1973. The income elasticity of the poverty line. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 55(3): 327–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirmani, A., & Rao, A. R. 2000. No pain, no gain: A critical review of the literature on signaling unobservable product quality. Journal of Marketing, 64(2): 66–79.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Knippenberg, D., & Daamen, D. 1996. Providing information in public opinion surveys: Motivation and ability effects in the information-and-choice questionnaire. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 8(1): 70–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krohn, S., & Damborg, S. 1999. On public attitudes towards wind power. Renewable Energy, 16(1–4): 954–960.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lange, D., Lee, P. M., & Dai, Y. 2011. Organizational reputation: A review. Journal of Management, 37(1): 153–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lo, C. K., Tang, C. S., Zhou, Y., Yeung, A. C., & Fan, D. 2018. Environmental incidents and the market value of firms: An empirical investigation in the Chinese context. Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, 20(3): 422–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mishina, Y., Block, E. S., & Mannor, M. J. 2012. The path dependence of organizational reputation: How social judgment influences assessments of capability and character. Strategic Management Journal, 33(5): 459–477.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morewedge, C. K., & Giblin, C. E. 2015. Explanations of the endowment effect: An integrative review. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19(6): 339–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Munyon, T. P., Jenkins, M. T., Crook, T. R., Edwards, J., & Harvey, N. P. 2019. Consequential cognition: Exploring how attribution theory sheds new light on the firm-level consequences of product recalls. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 40(5): 587–602.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Myers, S. C., & Majluf, N. S. 1984. Corporate financing and investment decisions when firms have informationthat investors do not have. Journal of Financial Economics, 13(2): 187–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newburry, W., Gardberg, N. A., & Belkin, L. Y. 2006. Organizational attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder: The interaction of demographic characteristics with foreignness. Journal of International Business Studies, 37(5): 666–686.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pfarrer, M. D., Pollock, T. G., & Rindova, V. P. 2010. A tale of two assets: The effects of firm reputation and celebrity on earnings surprises and investors’ reactions. Academy of Management Journal, 53(5): 1131–1152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rhee, M., & Haunschild, P. R. 2006. The liability of good reputation: A study of product recalls in the U.S. automobile industry. Organization Science, 17(1): 101–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rindova, V. P., Petkova, A. P., & Kotha, S. 2007. Standing out: How new firms in emerging markets build reputation. Strategic Organization, 5(1): 31–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rindova, V. P., Williamson, I. O., Petkova, A. P., & Sever, J. M. 2005. Being good or being known: An empirical examination of the dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of organizational reputation. Academy of Management Journal, 48(6): 1033–1049.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skarmeas, D., & Leonidou, C. N. 2013. When consumers doubt, watch out! The role of CSR skepticism. Journal of Business Research, 66(10): 1831–1838.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spence, M. 1973. Job market signaling. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 87(3): 355–374.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sun, Z., Wu, D., & Zhang, M. 2019. Better late than never? Corporate social responsibility engagement after product-harm crises. Asia Pacific Journal of Management. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-019-09701-0.

  • Sun, L., Yung, E. H., Chan, E. H., & Zhu, D. 2016. Issues of NIMBY conflict management from the perspective of stakeholders: A case study in Shanghai. Habitat International, 53(1): 133–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tan, J., Qin, X., & Gong, L. 2019. Assessing public satisfaction of freeway closure measures in fog and haze weather: A questionnaire-based study in Hubei Province, China. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 304(3): 032051.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toder-Alon, A., Rosenstreich, E., & Te’eni Harari, T. 2019. Give or take? Consumers’ ambivalent perspectives on the relationship between a firm’s corporate social responsibility engagement and its responsible tax payments. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 26(4): 872–884.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, K. 2010. A systematic review of the corporate reputation literature: Definition, measurement, and theory. Corporate Reputation Review, 12(4): 357–387.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wei, J., Ouyang, Z., & Chen, H. 2017. Well known or well liked? The effects of corporate reputation on firm value at the onset of a corporate crisis. Strategic Management Journal, 38(10): 2103–2120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • West, B., Hillenbrand, C., Money, K., Ghobadian, A., & Ireland, R. D. 2016. Exploring the impact of social axioms on firm reputation: A stakeholder perspective. British Journal of Management, 27(2): 249–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, O. E. 1996. The mechanisms of governance. New York:Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolsink, M. 1994. Entanglement of interests and motives: Assumptions behind the NIMBY-theory on facility siting. Urban Studies, 31(6): 851–866.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolsink, M. 2000. Wind power and the NIMBY-myth: Institutional capacity and the limited significance of public support. Renewable Energy, 21(1): 49–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu, J., Wei, J., & Lu, L. 2019. Strategic stakeholder management, environmental corporate social responsibility engagement, and financial performance of stigmatized firms derived from Chinese special environmental policy. Business Strategy and the Environment, 28(6): 1027–1044.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu, Y., & Zeng, G. 2020. Corporate social performance aspiration and its effects. Asia Pacific Journal of Management. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-020-09706-0.

  • Zavyalova, A., Pfarrer, M. D., Reger, R. K., & Shapiro, D. L. 2012. Managing the message: The effects of firm actions and industry spillovers on media coverage following wrongdoing. Academy of Management Journal, 55(5): 1079–1101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, Z., Jia, M., & Wan, D. 2012. When does a partner’s reputation impact cooperation effects in partnerships? Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 29(3): 547–571.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, Y., Sun, L. Y., & Leung, A. S. 2014. Corporate social responsibility, firm reputation, and firm performance: The role of ethical leadership. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 31(4): 925–947.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China grants #72025402, #71921001 and #71828102, and Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS (2013284).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiuchang Wei.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

There is no conflict of interest between this research and other parties. The work described has not been submitted elsewhere for publication, in whole or in part, and all the authors listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

ESM 1

(DOC 550 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, Z., Wei, J. & Ge, Y.G. Local Support for the Corporate New Investment Project: The Roles of Corporate Reputation, Project’s CSR Behavior and Residential Income Level. Asia Pac J Manag 40, 59–85 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-021-09779-5

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-021-09779-5

Keywords

Navigation