RT Article
T1 The Local Roots of Corporate Social Responsibility
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 142
IS 3
SP 479
OP 496
A1 Attig, Najah
A1 Brockman, Paul
A2 Brockman, Paul
LA English
YR 2017
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1785660977
AB We provide new evidence that the prosocial attitudes of local residents play a significant role in determining a firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement. We show that firms are more likely to engage in CSR initiatives when they are headquartered in areas with large senior citizen populations and where a large fraction of the population makes charitable donations. In contrast, we find that firms are less likely to engage in CSR initiatives when they are headquartered in areas with large religiously affiliated groups. After establishing the local demographic roots of CSR demand, we then examine the relationship between the firm’s CSR activities and its market valuation. Our results suggest that CSR initiatives create value when they are properly aligned with local residents’ prosocial attitudes. Overall, our study stresses the role of local residents’ CSR preferences in mediating the relationship between CSR and market valuations.
K1 Philanthropy
K1 Local residents
K1 corporate valuation
K1 Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
K1 Social Conformity
DO 10.1007/s10551-015-2757-3