Achieving legitimacy through corporate social responsibility: The case of emerging economy firms

Qinqin Zheng, Yadong Luo and Vladislav Maksimov

Journal of World Business, 2015, vol. 50, issue 3, 389-403

Abstract: To manage stakeholder CSR pressures, firms from emerging economies can employ two legitimation strategies simultaneously – compliance and strategic adaptation. Compliance is useful in responding to explicitly expressed demands for CSR, while strategic adaptation is useful when a specific form of CSR is seen as most instrumental in drawing positive responses from a particular stakeholder group. We analyze the adoption of two extreme CSR forms – philanthropy and sustainability. In a sample of 288 firms from China, we demonstrate that firms adopt both CSR forms, but emphasize philanthropy when seeking legitimacy with outsider stakeholders and sustainability with insider stakeholders.

Keywords: CSR; Philanthropy; Sustainability; Legitimacy; Stakeholder pressures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (65)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.jwb.2014.05.001

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