The impact of corporate social irresponsibility on emerging-economy firms’ long-term performance: An explanation based on signal theory

Xi Zhong, Weihong Chen and Ge Ren

Journal of Business Research, 2022, vol. 144, issue C, 345-357

Abstract: Corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) is widespread globally and severely impacts firms negatively. However, scholars have rarely empirically explored the relationship between CSI and emerging-economy firms’ long-term performance. Based on signal theory, we propose that CSI, as a negative signal unintentionally sent by the firm, will significantly weaken the approval and support of core stakeholders, and eventually have a serious adverse effect on emerging-economy firms’ long-term performance. In addition, we further propose that the relationship between CSI and emerging-economy firms’ long-term performance is likely nuanced and may vary by a multidimensional signal environment (e.g., corporate charitable donation, industry competition intensity, and regional marketization degree). After conducting an empirical test on Chinese listed companies from 2003 to 2019, we find that most of our arguments are supported. Our research enriches and expands the CSI and signal theory literature by providing important insights for firms and government departments to control CSI.

Keywords: Corporate social irresponsibility; Long-term performance; Signal theory; Emerging-economy firms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322001217
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:jbrese:v:144:y:2022:i:c:p:345-357

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.02.005

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Research is currently edited by A. G. Woodside

More articles in Journal of Business Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().