Research On The Influencing Factors Of Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility(CSR)has long been a strategic focus of firms around the world.The fulfillment of CSR is an effective way for firms to respond to the concerns of consumers and investors.With the development of sustainable development strategies and harmonious society constructing,CSR has gradually become an inevitable choice for Chinese enterprises to maintain their sound operations and establish competitive advantages.The report of the 19 th CPC National Congress proposed to strengthen the awareness of social responsibility,rules and dedication.General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized,“Only entrepreneurs who sincerely repay the society and fulfill their social responsibilities can truly be recognized by the society and are the ones who meet the requirements of the times.” Therefore,it is of great significance to the long-term development of firms and the society to regulate and improve the fulfillment of CSR,and to guide firms to correctly view the impact of fulfilling CSR on themselves and the external environment.There has been a long-standing academic debate on the impact of culture on economic and financial activities.The development and business activities of an enterprise are inseparable from the specific cultural environment on which it depends.Culture affects the final decision-making of the enterprise by affecting the social norms in the process of business operation and the moral concept of managers.When the scholars study the influencing factors of corporate behaviors,culture,as a typical informal institution,can often explain some differences that cannot be explained by individual characteristics and formal institutional factors.Hence,when discussing the motivation of corporate behaviors,the role of culture cannot be ignored.China is an ancient civilization and a great cultural country with a profound history and rich cultural connotations.Thus,it is a natural and ideal scene to explore the relationship between culture and corporate behaviors.In order to help the academic community to better understand the inconsistencies behind the differences in the performance of CSR in China,based on a single institutional background in China,this study starts from different connotations of culture,and examines the influence of culture on CSR,so as to provide effective empirical support for formulating economic policies and development strategies that fit the cultural environment of various regions in China.Based on several dimensions CSR of A-share listed companies in China,this study selects Chinese traditional and modern advanced cultures,to empirically examine the inherent cultural genes of CSR.The main conclusions are as follows:First of all,collectivist culture is the main axis of Chinese civilization and the core value concept of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era.Corporate philanthropy is the highest level of CSR performance,and it is also an effective way for Chinese society to achieve common prosperity.This paper finds that the stronger the collectivist culture in the headquarter of the enterprise,the higher the level of corporate philanthropy.When enterprises face financial and operational difficulties,such as high financing constraints and high losses due to natural disaster,the effect of collectivist culture is more significant,which verifies the altruistic thoughts in collectivism on the altruistic motivation of corporate philanthropy.In the process of corporate philanthropy attributing to achieve common prosperity,when the primary and secondary distribution mechanisms are insufficient,that is,when the formal system is relatively lacking,the collectivist culture plays a more significant and greater role.The main conclusions remain consistent after a series of robustness tests,using Heckman’s two-step method and using precipitation data as an instrumental variable to address the endogeneity problem.Secondly,clan culture is one of the traditional cultures with the longest history and the most complete preservation in China,and it has an important influence on the economic and financial activities.Paying taxes in accordance with the law is the most basic social responsibility of an enterprise,so tax avoidance is an act of evading social responsibility to a certain extent.In the research on family firms,this paper finds that the stronger the clan culture of the ultimate controller’s hometown,the higher the degree of tax avoidance of the family firm.The thinking of small groupism contained in clan culture has led to increased family control in the enterprise,that is,the control of the ultimate controller and the participation of relatives in the management team.This is a possible mechanism for clan culture to influence family business tax avoidance.At the same time,this paper pays attention to the guiding role of modern advanced culture on traditional culture,and finds that socialist culture within the enterprise can effectively alleviate the influence of clan culture by suppressing the thinking of small groupism.After a series of robustness tests such as replacing main variables and adjusting samples,and using rice planting data and Song Dynasty war data as instrumental variables to solve the endogeneity problem,the main results remain unchanged.Finally,social trust has been the foundation of Chinese people’s life since ancient China,and it is also the cornerstone of social and economic development.This paper finds that the higher the level of social trust in the firm’s headquarter,the better the performance of CSR.When the level of internal and external governance of the enterprise is poor,social trust has a greater impact on CSR.In addition,social trust can encourage companies to fulfill their social responsibilities by improving corporate performance,such as reducing systemic risks and financing constraints.After changing the measures of social trust and CSR,and using propensity score matching methods and using dialect diversity as an instrumental variable to address the endogeneity issue,the main conclusions remain robust.Compared with the existing literature,the main contributions of this paper are as follows:First,this study enriches the research literature on culture and corporate behaviors.The research is based on the expansion and application of the field of cultural economics.At present,the discussion on Chinese culture and economic and financial behaviors is still in the development stage,and more empirical evidence needs to be excavated to examine the cultural genes behind corporate behaviors.This paper combines the classic theories of New Institutional Economics,Imprinting Theory and Upper Echelons Theory with the CSR relevant theories,and comprehensively and systematically expands the research on Chinese culture and financial activities to the field of CSR,enriching the research perspective of cultural economics.Second,it expands the relevant literature on the influencing factors of CSR.Existing studies on the motivations of CSR focus on the regulation of formal institutions and the impact of corporate governance or operational conditions.As an important factor influencing social development,culture is also an important environment for the survival and development of enterprises,and its impact on CSR has not been systematically explored.This paper combines the overall CSR performance and the behaviors of enterprises in tax avoidance and philanthropy,using the unique advantages of Chinese data,that is,based on the same institutional background,to analyze the impact of different cultures and their connotations on CSR performance,shedding light on the motivation of CSR.This paper also has the following practical implications:First of all,China needs to continue to implement the sustainable development strategy and realize the common development of the enterprise economy and the society and people’s livelihood.In the process of supervising and encouraging CSR,the decision-making behaviors of firms should be restrained from many aspects,such as supervising enterprises to pay taxes according to law,and encouraging enterprises to make charitable donations,so that the company is responsible for shareholders at the economic level,and at the same time considers the environment and the society.Social factors can effectively motivate enterprises to improve the CSR performance,achieving a dynamic balance between economic responsibility and social responsibility,thereby enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises,enhancing investor confidence,and gaining a larger market share.Secondly,Chinese people need to cultivate cultural self-confidence and let excellent cultural ideas help the development of enterprises and society.China is a great cultural country with a history of 5,000 years.We must adhere to the good ideas of promoting and exerting traditional culture,that is,take the essence of it,while get rid of the dross,so that impose soft constraints on corporate decision-making.At the same time,it is necessary to actively carry forward the advanced culture in line with the modern concept of development,and under the guidance of the socialist economic system with Chinese characteristics,use the advanced cultural concepts of the new era to lead the development of enterprises.Standing at a new historical starting point,we must implement the spirit of the Speech at the Ceremony Marking the Centenary of CPC,focus on achieving the Second Centenary Goal,and make the development of enterprises and the society resonate at the same frequency.Third,Chinese government is supposed to pay attention to the collaborative governance of formal and informal institutions.By combining informal systems such as culture with the law enforcement environment of formal systems,corporate behaviors can be more efficiently restrained.For the unfinished details that have not yet been perfected governed by the formal systems,the informal institutions can supplement it and impose soft constraints on the enterprise and its managers from the ideological and moral level.Only in this way can the “1+1>2”synergy between institutions be brought into play.