A Research on Corporate Internal and External Social Responsibility Deviation: From the Perspective of Regional Institutional Aspirations

Zheng Weiwei, Lian Yanling, Wang Yeen

Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 46, Issue 08, pp. 36 - 52 (2024)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.20230724.101

Summary

The inconsistency between corporate internal and external social responsibility will exacerbate the wealth gap between different groups, which is not conducive to achieving the development goal of common prosperity. Existing studies mainly focus on the inconsistency between CSR reporting and practice, but little attention has been paid to selective participation between internal and external social responsibility. This paper puts forward the concept of corporate internal and external social responsibility deviation, which is defined as the degree to which corporate external social responsibility is greater than internal social responsibility. Based on the data of Chinese listed firms from2012 to 2020, this paper mainly draws the following conclusions: Regional institutional aspiration gap has a positive impact on corporate internal and external social responsibility deviation, and the impact is weakened by a higher level of corporate social concern and TMT social capital. Compared with private enterprises, the positive relationship between regional institutional aspiration gap and corporate internal and external social responsibility deviation is weaker among state-owned enterprises. It is also found that corporate internal and external social responsibility deviation has a negative impact on long-term business growth, and this negative impact is more significant among private enterprises. The theoretical contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) It constructs a new perspective of CSR research under the background of common prosperity. (2) It expands the diversity of organizational aspirations from the perspective of the Behavior Theory of the Firm. (3) It enriches the research on the equilibrium of regional institution development under the background of transitional economy. (4) It expands the boundary conditions that regional institutional aspiration gap affects corporate internal and external social responsibility deviation. The practical contributions of this paper are as follows: First, entrepreneurs and top managers should build a long-term oriented strategic vision, comprehensively consider the potential value of internal and external social responsibility, balance the allocation of limited attention and resources in different dimensions of CSR, and avoid excessive social responsibility deviation. Second, government departments should also pay attention to the balance and coordination between different regions while accelerating the development level of regional marketization. Third, supervision units need to unite the public, government departments, and corporate entities to build a CSR governance system of “tripartite governance”.

Keywords

common prosperity; social responsibility deviation; regional institutional aspirations; attention allocation; Behavioral Theory of the Firm