Abstract
This study examines how chief executive officers (CEOs) personally benefit from their firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and the contingencies in this relationship. We apply stakeholder theory and social identity theory to examine the idea that CSR contributes to CEOs’ self-perceived status. When firms obtain higher legitimacy, admiration, and respect from CSR, CEOs—as firms’ agents and representatives—are likely to associate the firms’ social worth with their own social values. Although responsible investments enhance executives’ self-satisfaction with status, we further argue that this relationship is stronger among CEOs with greater discretion. Thus, the main effect should become weaker when an executive lacks discretion, reflected by state ownership and stronger internal monitoring. We assess the aforementioned ideas by analyzing two waves of a nationwide time-lagged survey of a large sample of Chinese private firms; the empirical findings support these arguments and make important contributions to the literature on CSR, business ethics, and upper echelon theory.
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Appendix Table 1
Appendix Table 1
OLS estimates: Single measure of perceived social status (2018)
Model 1 | Model 2 | Model 3 | Model 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Social status (2016) | 0.206 | 0.204 | 0.200 | 0.199 |
(0.0333) | (0.0333) | (0.0335) | (0.0335) | |
[0.000] | [0.000] | [0.000] | [0.000] | |
Firm age | 0.00441 | 0.00453 | 0.00402 | 0.00415 |
(0.0105) | (0.0105) | (0.0105) | (0.0105) | |
[0.674] | [0.666] | [0.702] | [0.693] | |
Firm size | -0.0368 | -0.0367 | -0.0400 | -0.0397 |
(0.0319) | (0.0320) | (0.0320) | (0.0320) | |
[0.250] | [0.251] | [0.211] | [0.214] | |
Listed firm | 0.611 | 0.579 | 0.695 | 0.662 |
(0.464) | (0.466) | (0.460) | (0.462) | |
[0.188] | [0.215] | [0.131] | [0.152] | |
State ownership | 0.400 | 0.858 | 0.338 | 0.740 |
(0.913) | (0.945) | (0.887) | (0.934) | |
[0.661] | [0.364] | [0.703] | [0.429] | |
Internal monitoring | 0.0762 | 0.0758 | 0.0921 | 0.0909 |
(0.0385) | (0.0385) | (0.0388) | (0.0388) | |
[0.048] | [0.049] | [0.018] | [0.020] | |
ROS | 0.0106 | 0.00737 | 0.0199 | 0.0166 |
(0.144) | (0.143) | (0.143) | (0.143) | |
[0.941] | [0.959] | [0.890] | [0.908] | |
CEO age | -0.00329 | -0.00374 | -0.00284 | -0.00326 |
(0.00699) | (0.00698) | (0.00700) | (0.00700) | |
[0.637] | [0.592] | [0.685] | [0.642] | |
CEO education | 0.0691 | 0.0673 | 0.0637 | 0.0625 |
(0.0612) | (0.0612) | (0.0611) | (0.0612) | |
[0.259] | [0.272] | [0.298] | [0.307] | |
Congress or conference | 0.0590 | 0.0568 | 0.0635 | 0.0613 |
(0.179) | (0.179) | (0.178) | (0.178) | |
[0.742] | [0.751] | [0.722] | [0.731] | |
CCP member | 0.0309 | 0.0290 | 0.0139 | 0.0133 |
(0.133) | (0.133) | (0.133) | (0.133) | |
[0.817] | [0.828] | [0.917] | [0.921] | |
Other political party member | 0.0598 | 0.0601 | 0.0784 | 0.0776 |
(0.288) | (0.288) | (0.292) | (0.292) | |
[0.836] | [0.835] | [0.788] | [0.790] | |
Founder | -0.167 | -0.157 | -0.172 | -0.163 |
(0.144) | (0.144) | (0.144) | (0.144) | |
[0.246] | [0.276] | [0.231] | [0.257] | |
CEO gender | 0.312 | 0.313 | 0.308 | 0.309 |
(0.151) | (0.151) | (0.151) | (0.151) | |
[0.039] | [0.039] | [0.041] | [0.041] | |
CSR | 0.0724 | 0.0947 | 0.262 | 0.270 |
(0.0630) | (0.0661) | (0.124) | (0.124) | |
[0.251] | [0.152] | [0.035] | [0.030] | |
CSR * State ownership | -0.607 | -0.528 | ||
(0.247) | (0.254) | |||
[0.014] | [0.038] | |||
CSR * Internal monitoring | -0.0432 | -0.0406 | ||
(0.0216) | (0.0217) | |||
[0.046] | [0.061] | |||
Province dummies | Included | Included | Included | Included |
Industry dummies | Included | Included | Included | Included |
Constant | -0.738 | -0.738 | -0.772 | -0.770 |
(0.607) | (0.609) | (0.615) | (0.616) | |
N | 1088 | 1088 | 1088 | 1088 |
adj. R2 | 0.148 | 0.148 | 0.150 | 0.150 |
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Li, J., Mao, K. & Lu, P. Doing good, feeling good? corporate social responsibility and CEOs’ self-perceived status. Asia Pac J Manag (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-023-09914-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-023-09914-4