Doing good, feeling good? corporate social responsibility and CEOs’ self-perceived status

Jiatao Li (), Kaixian Mao () and Peng Lu ()
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Jiatao Li: Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Kaixian Mao: Renmin University of China
Peng Lu: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 2024, vol. 41, issue 4, No 20, 2333-2357

Abstract: Abstract This study examines how chief executive officers (CEOs) personally benefit from their firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and the contingencies in this relationship. We apply stakeholder theory and social identity theory to examine the idea that CSR contributes to CEOs’ self-perceived status. When firms obtain higher legitimacy, admiration, and respect from CSR, CEOs—as firms’ agents and representatives—are likely to associate the firms’ social worth with their own social values. Although responsible investments enhance executives’ self-satisfaction with status, we further argue that this relationship is stronger among CEOs with greater discretion. Thus, the main effect should become weaker when an executive lacks discretion, reflected by state ownership and stronger internal monitoring. We assess the aforementioned ideas by analyzing two waves of a nationwide time-lagged survey of a large sample of Chinese private firms; the empirical findings support these arguments and make important contributions to the literature on CSR, business ethics, and upper echelon theory.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility; Self-perceived status; Business ethics; Managerial discretion; Private firms in China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10490-023-09914-4

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