Government Initiated Corporate Social Responsibility Activities: Evidence from a Poverty Alleviation Campaign in China

Journal of Business Ethics

52 Pages Posted: 14 Jan 2019 Last revised: 20 May 2020

See all articles by Yuyuan Chang

Yuyuan Chang

South China University of Technology

Wen He

Monash University

Jianling Wang

Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) - School of Management

Date Written: May 15, 2020

Abstract

In 2016 the Chinese government initiated a nationwide campaign aiming to eliminate poverty in China by 2020. Over 20% of listed firms in China have made significant contributions to the campaign. Using hand-collected data on listed firms’ contributions to the campaign and multivariate analyses, we examine whether managers’ and politicians’ personal incentives play an important role in firms’ contributions to the campaign. The results show that firms are more likely to contribute if they are state-owned and managers are appointed by governments, if managers have a higher risk of being targeted in a concurrent anti-corruption campaign, if the political leaders in their province are new or intend to seek promotion, and if managers or directors have experienced poverty in their early life. The results suggest that it is important to consider managers’ and politicians’ personal incentives in CSR activities that could have a grand social impact.

Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, government, poverty alleviation, China

JEL Classification: G41

Suggested Citation

Chang, Yuyuan and He, Wen and Wang, Jianling, Government Initiated Corporate Social Responsibility Activities: Evidence from a Poverty Alleviation Campaign in China (May 15, 2020). Journal of Business Ethics, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3315012

Yuyuan Chang

South China University of Technology ( email )

Wen He (Contact Author)

Monash University ( email )

H3.43, Building H, Level 3
Monash University Caulfiled
Melbourne, VIC 3145
Australia

Jianling Wang

Xi'an Jiaotong University (XJTU) - School of Management

28,Xianning West Road
Xi'an, Shaanxi 710049
China

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