The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Firms’ Innovation in China: The Role of Institutional Support

Huanyong Ji, Guannan Xu, Yuan Zhou and Zhongzhen Miao
Additional contact information
Huanyong Ji: School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Guannan Xu: School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing 100876, China
Yuan Zhou: School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Zhongzhen Miao: School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 22, 1-20

Abstract: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) literature in developed countries indicates that there are two types of CSR (i.e., proactive CSR and reactive CSR), and only the proactive one can boost innovation. However, recent studies from emerging economies such as China show that both types of CSR can enhance innovation. Such inconsistent results may be created by, on the one hand, the heterogeneity of innovation types, and on the other hand, the heterogeneity of mechanisms though which CSR impacts innovation in different countries. Accordingly, this paper theoretically explores the impacts of two types of CSR (i.e., proactive CSR and reactive CSR) on two of innovation types (exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation). This paper further reveals the mechanisms through which CSR impacts innovation in China by investigating the moderating role of institutional support (i.e., government support and social support) on the relationship between CSR and innovation. Using a panel dataset (2008–2016) of 286 Chinese public listed firms from research and development (R&D)-intensive industries (e.g., information technology, pharmaceutical and biological products; and chemicals, etc.), our findings show that: (1) proactive CSR promotes exploratory innovation; (2) reactive CSR promotes exploitative innovation; (3) government support strengthen the relationship between proactive CSR and exploratory innovation as well as the relationship between reactive CSR and exploitative innovation; (4) social support weaken the relationship between proactive CSR and exploratory innovation. This paper enriches our understanding on the relationship between CSR and innovation, and provides implications for practitioners and policymakers.

Keywords: proactive CSR; reactive CSR; exploratory innovation; exploitative innovation; institutional support; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6369/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/22/6369/ (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:11:y:2019:i:22:p:6369-:d:286416

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 ().