From efficiency to legitimacy: the changing logic of internal CSR in emerging multinationals during internationalization

Xuelin Bu and Limin Chen ()
Additional contact information
Xuelin Bu: Wuhan University
Limin Chen: Wuhan University

Asian Business & Management, 2023, vol. 22, issue 4, No 8, 1418-1453

Abstract: Abstract This paper focuses on internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) (i.e. shareholder responsibility and employee responsibility) changes within emerging-market multinational companies (EMNCs) with a resource constraints perspective and attention-based view, providing a finely variegated analysis of and new insights into the internationalization–CSR relationship. Specifically, as EMNCs’ resource constraints change from high to low and the primary focus shifts during internationalization, their dominant logic moves from efficiency to legitimacy; correspondingly, their internal CSR shows a U-shaped change—first declining and then increasing. This nonlinear model is supported by an empirical test of Chinese listed MNCs from 2013 to 2018. On this basis, the moderating roles of state-owned background and innovation-oriented strategy are examined, as both affect the resource constraints and attention structure of EMNCs during internationalization. We also provide a sensitivity analysis of internationalization’s impact on each dimension of internal CSR and an in-depth discussion of our findings.

Keywords: Internationalization; Internal corporate social responsibility; Resource constraints; Attention-based view; Emerging multinationals; U-shaped model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 F66 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41291-022-00213-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:pal:abaman:v:22:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1057_s41291-022-00213-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/journal/41291

DOI: 10.1057/s41291-022-00213-2

Access Statistics for this article

Asian Business & Management is currently edited by Fabian Jintae Froese

More articles in Asian Business & Management from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().