Social responsibility, corporate giving and the tide

Margarida Catalão-Lopes, Joaquim P. Pina, Ana Branca

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to address firms' decisions on corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a function of the economic environment. The paper focuses on corporate giving, a CSR dimension that is especially important in an economic downturn such as the one experienced by many European economies since 2007-2008.
Design/methodology/approach - A theoretical framework comprising product differentiation and market competition is proposed. The paper investigates whether adverse economic conditions refrain corporate giving or, alternatively, stimulate it as a differentiation and demand enhancing instrument. Econometric empirical testing on the business cycle properties of giving at an aggregate level is also conducted.
Findings - According to theoretical results, firms seem to refrain giving under adverse economic conditions in the short run. Empirically, the paper concludes for a pro cyclical contemporaneous relation of corporate giving with real gross domestic product, supporting the theoretical finding. In a dynamic perspective, however, giving causes revenues and firms tend to donate more than a few years after the downturn.
Originality/value - The paper examines the behaviour of an under researched component of corporate social responsibility, which is especially important in economic downturns - giving. It considers continuous degrees of market competition and differentiation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2294-2309
Number of pages16
JournalManagement Decision
Volume54
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Keywords

  • NUMERICAL DISTRIBUTION-FUNCTIONS
  • FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
  • COINTEGRATION
  • MARKET
  • PHILANTHROPY
  • COMPETITION
  • CRISIS
  • FIRMS
  • TESTS

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Social responsibility, corporate giving and the tide'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this