Corporate social responsibility sophistication: Company-specific drivers among early and late adopters
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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in: Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 2024.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Zeitschriftenaufsätze › Forschung › begutachtet
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Corporate social responsibility sophistication
T2 - Company-specific drivers among early and late adopters
AU - Kunkel, Kyra
AU - Wigge, Katharina
AU - Lueg, Rainer
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - This study examines the internal company drivers of corporate social responsibility (CSR) sophistication from a diffusion theory perspective. Bertram et al.'s (2015) framework on implementation drivers of innovations is used as our basis to operationalize the internal company drivers influencing CSR sophistication. We conduct fixed-effects regressions on a sample of 1919 international for-profit companies listed on the STOXX 1800 index (17,848 company years over the period 2002–2020) and explore several sub-portfolios. This study finds that management training, board skills, CEO compensation based on total shareholder return, and quality management systems drive CSR sophistication. Management training is the strongest and most consistent driver. Our analyses show that the effects of the identified drivers are strongest for portfolios of companies with previously low CSR sophistication. Moreover, early adopters appear to be motivated to utilize CSR for both economic reasons and legitimacy. While we find that board members with a finance background improve CSR sophistication, we also show that this increase mainly stems from improving governance practices. Last, we show that CSR sophistication notably increased over time, and parallel with the per capita wealth of the country that hosts its headquarters. Overall, this study is the first to investigate the internal company drivers of non-binary CSR sophistication using large-scale panel data, thereby exploring the effects of early/late adoption and the individual pillars of E, S, and G.
AB - This study examines the internal company drivers of corporate social responsibility (CSR) sophistication from a diffusion theory perspective. Bertram et al.'s (2015) framework on implementation drivers of innovations is used as our basis to operationalize the internal company drivers influencing CSR sophistication. We conduct fixed-effects regressions on a sample of 1919 international for-profit companies listed on the STOXX 1800 index (17,848 company years over the period 2002–2020) and explore several sub-portfolios. This study finds that management training, board skills, CEO compensation based on total shareholder return, and quality management systems drive CSR sophistication. Management training is the strongest and most consistent driver. Our analyses show that the effects of the identified drivers are strongest for portfolios of companies with previously low CSR sophistication. Moreover, early adopters appear to be motivated to utilize CSR for both economic reasons and legitimacy. While we find that board members with a finance background improve CSR sophistication, we also show that this increase mainly stems from improving governance practices. Last, we show that CSR sophistication notably increased over time, and parallel with the per capita wealth of the country that hosts its headquarters. Overall, this study is the first to investigate the internal company drivers of non-binary CSR sophistication using large-scale panel data, thereby exploring the effects of early/late adoption and the individual pillars of E, S, and G.
KW - board skills
KW - compensation
KW - CSR sophistication
KW - diffusion theory
KW - early adoption
KW - leadership skills
KW - management training
KW - quality management systems
KW - Management studies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85205585100&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/26df40a6-f7f2-3cd2-8e03-ccb32b4876ee/
U2 - 10.1002/csr.2998
DO - 10.1002/csr.2998
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:85205585100
JO - Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management
JF - Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management
SN - 1535-3958
ER -