The Influence of Performance Reporting Attributes on Managers' Capital Allocation Decisions: An Examination of Reporting Audience and Location

Abstract

This article reports two experiments testing how managers’ capital allocation decisions are affected by where and to whom they report corporate social responsibility (CSR) information. Drawing on accountability theory, I predict that managers allocate more money to CSR activities when that information is reported in a dedicated CSR report that is intended for all stakeholders, compared to settings where it is reported in a financial report or when the information is intended specifically for capital providers. I find support for this prediction using graduate business students (Experiment 1) as participants, but not Mechanical Turk workers (Experiment 2). However, exploratory analyses indicate that my prediction is supported in Experiment 2 among millennial participants and that this result is attributable to participant age rather than work experience or preferences for CSR. This generational difference between millennials and non-millennials is consistent with recent research suggesting millennials are particularly sensitive to accountability pressures.

Keywords: reporting attributes, accountability, managerial decision-making, corporate social responsibility, millennials