What drives CSR specialization? The roles of relative marketing capability and market conditions

Fangyuan Teng, Mahabubur Rahman and Seongsoo Jang
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Fangyuan Teng: Rennes SB - Rennes School of Business, University of Ljubljana
Mahabubur Rahman: Rennes SB - Rennes School of Business
Seongsoo Jang: Cardiff Business School - Cardiff University

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Abstract: Firms engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) through either a generalist approach, addressing many CSR areas, or a specialist approach, focusing on a few. Most firms adopt the latter, yet little is known about what drives CSR specialization, especially the role of organizational capabilities. Drawing on resource advantage theory and dynamic capabilities theory, this study examines whether and how a firm's relative marketing capability (RMC) affects CSR specialization, and how market conditions—munificence, concentration, and dynamism—moderate this relationship. Using panel data from 855 firms across six countries (2012–2021) and a dynamic estimation method addressing endogeneity, we find that RMC positively influences CSR specialization. Furthermore, market conditions moderate the relationship between RMC and CSR specialization; firms with greater RMC specialize in CSR when they face less munificent, more concentrated, or more dynamic markets. The findings remain consistent across a battery of robustness analyses.

Keywords: Market dynamism; Market concentration; Market munificence; CSR specialization; Relative marketing capability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-04
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Published in Journal of Business Research, 2026, 207, pp.115984. ⟨10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115984⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05488763

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2026.115984

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