Opening the Black Box of CSR Decision Making: A Policy-Capturing Study of Charitable Donation Decisions in China

This policy-capturing study, conducted in China, investigated the cognitive basis of managerial decisions to make a corporate charitable donation, a global issue in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR) research and practice. Participants (N = 376) responded to a series of scenarios m...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics Vol. 128; no. 3; pp. 665 - 683
Main Authors: Wang, Shuo, Gao, Yuhui, Hodgkinson, Gerard P., Rousseau, Denise M., Flood, Patrick C.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.05.2015
Springer Netherlands
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Altruism
Attitudes
Business and Management
Business Ethics
Charities
Chief executive officers
Cognition
Competitors
Consumers
Corporate responsibility
Corporate social responsibility
Customers
Decision makers
Decision making
Donations
Earthquakes
Economic analysis
Education
Ethics
Government employees
Industrial enterprises
Management
Organizational factors
Organizational research
Ownership
Philanthropy
Philosophy
Quality of Life Research
Size of enterprise
Social interest
Social responsibility
Stakeholders
Statistical analysis
Stockholders
Strategic management
Values
Variables
China
Corporate social responsibility
Stakeholder salience theory
Policy-capturing study
Upper echelons theory and Chinese management
Strategic decision making
ISSN:0167-4544, 1573-0697
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This policy-capturing study, conducted in China, investigated the cognitive basis of managerial decisions to make a corporate charitable donation, a global issue in the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR) research and practice. Participants (N = 376) responded to a series of scenarios manipulating pressure from the five stakeholders (government, customers, competitors, employees, and shareholders) most commonly addressed by CSR research. The independent variables examined included organizational factors (industry, ownership, previous company donation, firm size, firm age, and perceived CEO attitudes toward charity) and the participants' personal values. Results indicate a large positive effect of shareholder and governmental pressure on the decision with lesser positive effects from customers and competitors. Surprisingly, employee pressure had a negative effect on the decision to make a charitable donation. Further, personal values and perceived CEO attitudes toward charity were significantly related to the decisions participants made. In line with our theorizing, the findings indicate that a combination of personal, organizational, and institutional factors was salient in the minds of decision makers.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
content type line 23
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1007/s10551-014-2123-x