Looking Backward and Forward: Political Links and Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility in China

Peng Zhou (), Felix Arndt (), Kun Jiang () and Weiqi Dai ()
Additional contact information
Peng Zhou: Wuhan University
Felix Arndt: De Montfort University
Kun Jiang: University of Nottingham
Weiqi Dai: Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics

Journal of Business Ethics, 2021, vol. 169, issue 4, No 3, 649 pages

Abstract: Abstract This study aims to enrich our understanding of the relationship between political connections and the adoption of environmental corporate socially responsible (ECSR) investments. In addition to the individual-level political connections, i.e., entrepreneurs’ personal ties to government officials, we propose in China the creation of Communist Party of China (CPC) branches in privately owned firms serve as organizational and institutionalized dimensions of political connection building. Drawing on the social exchange theory, this paper details how CPC branches function in privately owned firms and how entrepreneurs are motivated by the reciprocal logic to engage in ECSR. We also supplement this main effect by examining the boundary conditions of it at the firm and regional level. Using a dataset with 17,690 firm observations in China, we find that the existence of CPC branches gives rise to the ECSR investments and the firm-level contingencies such as centralized governance and financial constraints, and the regional-level contingencies such as the development of the market system, are important moderators that shape the association of political links and ECSR investments. These findings have ample implications to understand the ECSR activities and extend social exchange theory beyond the individual level on which it is typically applied.

Keywords: Environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR); Political connections; Party branch; Governance structure; Financial constraints; Emerging economy; Social exchange theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-020-04495-4 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:kap:jbuset:v:169:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-020-04495-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10551/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-020-04495-4

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Ethics is currently edited by Michelle Greenwood and R. Edward Freeman

More articles in Journal of Business Ethics from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().