Corporate social responsibility: Financial aspiration, institutional environment, and product diversification

In this dissertation, I identify three important topics that are under-explored in the literature of corporate social responsibility (CSR). In the first essay, I draw on the behavior theory of the firm to discuss how firms respond to corporate philanthropy when they fail to achieve financial aspirations, and what financial consequence firms will face if they have a low level of corporate philanthropy. In the second essay, I draw on signaling theory to discuss what kind of signals firms adopting CSR practices send to investors in emerging economies and how the signaling effect may vary in different institutional environments. In the third essay, I discuss how firms manage to maintain relationships with various scopes of nonmarket stakeholders in accordance with their level of product diversification in order to enhance financial performance. Overall, these three essays demonstrate how CSR is associated with firm financial aspiration, institutional environment, and product diversification.