How and When Does Corporate Giving Lead to Getting? An Investigation of the Relationship Between Corporate Philanthropy and Relative Competitive Performance from a Micro-process Perspective

Wenwen Zhao (zhaowenwen0405@xjtu.edu.cn) and Zhe Zhang (zhangzhe220@sina.com)
Additional contact information
Wenwen Zhao: Xi’an Jiaotong University
Zhe Zhang: Xi’an Jiaotong University

Journal of Business Ethics, 2020, vol. 166, issue 2, No 12, 425-440

Abstract: Abstract The corporate ethics literature has considerably focused on whether giving (corporate philanthropy) results in getting (firm performance). However, the relationship between corporate philanthropy and performance and the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Drawing on signaling and cue consistency theories, we develop and test a model that specifies whether, how, and when corporate philanthropy benefits relative competitive performance from a micro-process perspective. Using a Chinese sample of 1623 employees, 145 CEOs, and 145 human resources managers, we found that corporate philanthropy could positively influence relative competitive performance through the internal processes—organization-level citizenship behaviors of employees. Moreover, work–life balance practices strengthen the aforementioned mediation. In particular, when a firm performs high levels of work–life balance practices, corporate philanthropy tends to promote more citizenship behaviors in the entire organization, thereby enhancing the relative competitive performance of the firm. By contrast, when organizations perform low levels of work–life balance practices, the aforementioned mediation becomes nonsignificant. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords: Corporate philanthropy; Relative competitive performance; Organization-level organizational citizenship behavior; Work–life balance practices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-019-04149-0 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:166:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-019-04149-0

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

DOI: 10.1007/s10551-019-04149-0

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 (sonal.shukla@springer.com) and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (indexing@springernature.com).