Knowledge-Based Faultlines and Corporate Social Irresponsibility: Evidence from Chinese High-Polluting Companies

Jingchen Ma () and Xu Huang
Additional contact information
Jingchen Ma: School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 610074, China
Xu Huang: School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 610074, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 17, 1-18

Abstract: Government requests and societal expectations have pressured high-polluting companies to focus on corporate social responsibility strategies. Using the upper echelons theory as a theoretical framework, we investigated how top management team (TMT) faultlines influence corporate social performance (CSP) based on data from 212 high-polluting companies. The results showed that CSP can be improved by reducing corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR), knowledge-based faultlines have a U-shaped effect on CSiR, and there is a knowledge-based faultline critical point. This implies that knowledge-based faultlines can improve CSiR before reaching this critical point. Additionally, medium-strength knowledge-based faultlines are more conducive to improving irresponsible behavior. CEO power plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between TMT faultlines and CSiR and slows the U-shaped effect of knowledge-based faultlines on CSiR. These findings could help enterprises optimize team structures, adjust corporate social responsibility strategies, and maintain sustainable development in high-polluting sectors.

Keywords: corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR); knowledge-based faultlines; CEO power; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/13156/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/13156/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:17:p:13156-:d:1230781

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().