The Research On The Relationships Between Top Management Team Characteristics And Corporate Social Responsibility

Since top management team (TMT) theory and Upper Echelons have been introduced into the research areas of strategy and organization science, there is a large number of empirical studies in this area, with the model was tested and revised, and some conflicts remain. The model on the relationship between TMT characteristics and firm outcomes has been widely accepted and research about TMT is the most robust area in strategy and organization science. As corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been introduced into mainstream of economics and management, practices of CSR are linked to firm performance and competitiveness and enter into a new stage in the context of globalization. The relationship between strategic leadership and CSR arouses the interest of scholars, and some empirical studies have shown that socialized charismatic leadership, an aspect of transformational leadership, has positive relationship with the CSR orientation and initiatives of leaders. Research on the relationship between top executives and CSR performance is still in the initial stage. Upper Echelons as basic theory, this paper integrate and synthesize following aspects, bounded rationality, managerial discretion, strategic decisions on CSR, CSR performance. This paper borrows ideas from the traditional paradigm that firm performance reflects the characteristic of TMT, avoiding the pure economic analysis and debates, and close to commercial practices. This paper explores the rationality and effectiveness of the application of Upper Echelons to the relationship between TMT characteristics and CSR performance by means of literature review and theoretical analysis. With empirical studies on the relationship, this paper is meaningful to exploration of TMT, leadership, and CSR.Inspired by Upper Echelons, strategic leadership, strategic CSR, and CSR competitiveness, this paper sheds light on two specific aspects. First, with explanatory, this paper interprets the basic ideas and core elements of Upper Echelons, and CSR theory; Second, Based on a sample of TMT data of 211 listed companies from those that release CSR reports, and with data of the third-party evaluation of corresponding CSR reports, this paper found that there are some positive relationships between characteristics of TMT and CSR performance. Studies on the relationship between TMT characteristics and CSR performance involved management ethics and organization science has little theoretical and empirical foundation, and this paper has make some innovative efforts in this area.