Corporate Political Donations: Influences from Directors’ Networks

Motivated by contemporary debates concerning whether directors inappropriately deploy corporate funds for corporate political donations and the limited research into managerial influence on corporate political donations, we examine the impact of director influences from a network perspective. Using a sample of large listed Australian corporations and their political party donation activity during 2000–2007, we find that both the professional and non-professional networks of directors influence corporate political donations. We observe these influences in relation to donations at the federal and state levels, and with respect to the choice of recipient political parties.     

党组织参与治理对上市公司慈善捐赠的影响

利用我国A股非金融类上市公司2008—2017年数据,采用“双向进入”、“交叉任职”两个指标衡量党组织参与企业治理的情况,实证检验其对企业慈善捐赠行为的影响。结果发现,党组织“双向进入”和“交叉任职”与企业是否捐赠、捐赠水平均呈显著正向关系。此外,上述作用在国有企业与非国有企业中均存在,但与中央国有企业相比,党组织参与治理对企业捐赠的促进效应在地方国有企业中更为明显。研究还发现,党组织参与治理对企业慈善捐赠的促进作用并不以损害企业价值为代价,反而会提高公司经营绩效和价值,并且党组织参与治理对企业捐赠的促进作用并非以获取更多的政府补贴为目的。研究表明,党组织参与治理促进了企业的捐赠行为,这一结论有助于进一步理解党组织在公司治理中的地位与作用。     

The Acid Test of Corporate Identity Management™

This article introduces a new approach to corporate identity scholarship and practice entitled "The ACID Test of Corporate Identity Management."? The researchers undertook empirical research within a major corporate identity consultancy with the objective of evaluating and contrasting the techniques used by the consultancy with the latest developments in corporate identity scholarship. An analysis of the documentary material produced by the UK's top 20 corporate identity consultancies and of the conceptual models of corporate image/corporate identity produced by academics was undertaken. A qualitative research design was adopted, based on in-depth interviews, desk research and content analysis. The research revealed that most corporate identity projects adopted a "vision driven approach." In other words corporate identity strategies were being built around the corporate vision as articulated by an organisation's chief executive and/or board of management. Furthermore, visual identification was used as the primary vehicle to effect a change in the organisation's identity. The analysis of the documentary material of twenty corporate identity consultancies revealed that this vision driven approach was common across the industry. This finding is at variance with the latest developments in corporate identity research and scholarship which acknowledges that a variety of identity strategies are required in order to meet the various identity problems faced by organisations. It became clear that there was scope for a method which could help to (a) identify weaknesses with an organisation's identity strategy and management and (b) prioritise the type of identity change required in light of the current identity. The researchers found that the corporate identity interface concept introduced by Abratt (1989) and, which has been further developed by Stuart (1994) and Balmer (1998) could be used as the basis for a new approach to corporate identity consultancy, management and scholarship and this resulted in the creation of "The Acid Test of Corporate Identity Management". This new model affords one means by which senior managers, consultants and scholars might avoid some of the pitfalls which they can face when designing corporate identity change strategies. The article ends by discussing the implications of the ACID Test for corporate identity research, management and consultancy.     

Managing the Risks of Corporate Political Donations: A Utilitarian Perspective

This paper applies a utilitarian analysis to corporate political donations. Unlike the more common rights-based analyses, it is argued that the optimal policy is the one that best satisfies society’s rational preferences concerning donor influence, adequate financing, donor pressure and the cost of maintaining and enforcing the democratic system. This analysis suggests that a ban is best if it would be generally observed and sufficient financing from other sources is available, otherwise a donation cap is a better option. Further, lobbyists should be banned from donating small gifts and drafting bills for candidates. The impact of disclosure and other risk management mechanisms are also considered.     

Insiders' personal stock donations from the lens of stakeholder,stewardship and agency theories

This paper studies the relationship between personal stock donation by top executives and board of directors (insiders) of publicly traded corporations and their personal tax, shareholders' returns, and social responsibility. The study finds evidence that the timing of stock donations is driven by personal tax gain. The study further shows, comparing stock gift corporations relative to their non‐stock gift cohorts, that personal stock gifts are associated with lower short‐term and long‐term stock returns to shareholders. This implies that stock donation driven by insiders' personal gain adversely affects shareholder wealth. However, the likelihood and intensity of insiders to make personal stock donation is reduced when firms have strong corporate social responsibility (CSR). Agency theory explains insiders' opportunistic behavior, stakeholder theory is also supported by evidence that stock donation is negatively related to CSR, and stewardship theory offers a different view to explain the rationale behind insiders' stock donation and shareholders' reactions to stock gifts.     

Listed peers' giving and corporate philanthropy: The motivations to imitate

The impact of industrial peers' donations on firms' charitable practices has been tested and verified in existing literatures. This paper further studies the motivations and scenarios of non-listed companies to imitate their listed counterparts in the same industry to formulate charitable policies. Deeply rooted in institutional isomorphism theory, uncertainty and professional networks are employed as philanthropic motives for unlisted companies to mimic their listed peers. Managerial decision mechanisms and network status perceptions enhance imitation by reinforcing decision uncertainty and network effect. Institutional environment heterogeneity can amplify or reduce the imitative stimulus of managers' decision mechanisms and status perceptions. Our empirical tests are based on a unique dataset of 14,873 unlisted firms and their corresponding listed counterparts in China from 2006–2016, and use Tobit regression methods. The results show a significantly positive association between listed peers' giving and non-listed firms' donation. The peer effects are intensified when non-listed firms' decentralized decision-making and higher managers' status identification are present. Furthermore, when the institutional environment changes from weak to strong, the impetus of decentralized decision-making and status identification will be weakened. These findings contribute to the corporate philanthropy literature and facilitate the development of effective corporate charity policies and government promotion of philanthropic responsibility.     

Will auditors charge more for corporate philanthropy? Evidence from China

This study examines the relationship between corporate philanthropy (CP) and audit fees. Using corporate donation data from China, our investigation finds that CP is significantly positively associated with audit fees. Resource-seeking purpose and the enhanced publicity effect may be plausible channels behind this relationship. We further find that the frequency and intensity of donations reinforce this positive association. Additional analysis reveals that the resource-seeking effect exists in any type of enterprise, while the enhanced publicity effect only exists in non-SOEs. Our main results remain robust to a battery of additional tests. Overall, our findings suggest that by increasing audit workload and prospective audit risk, CP could make auditors more conservative such that they charge a higher audit fee. This article emphasizes the dialectic institutional stakeholder perspective in understanding the economic consequences of CP. Both the theoretical contributions and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Philanthropic disaster relief giving as a response to institutional pressure: Evidence from China

This paper investigates if firms under high institutional pressure donate more to disaster relief than firms under lower institutional pressure. By taking Chinese listed companies' donations to May 12, 2008 Wenchuan earthquake as the sample, this research finds that large firms and firms who have political ties donate a significant more to disaster relief than smaller firms and firms who do not have political ties. But the findings indicate that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) donate no more than non SOEs, and service companies donate significantly less than non-service companies. The results of this research partly support the institutional point of view of corporate philanthropy. Firms under high institutional pressure are more likely to donate more than firms facing lower institutional pressure.     

Neither Principles Nor Rules: Making Corporate Governance Work in Sub-Saharan Africa

Corporate governance is often split between rule-based and principle-based approaches to regulation in different institutional contexts. This split is often informed by the types of institutional configurations, their strengths, and the complementarities within them. This approach to corporate governance regulation is mostly discussed in the context of developed economies and their regulatory demands. However, in developing and weak market economies, such as in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is no such explicit split and the debates on such contexts in the comparative corporate governance literature have been meagre. Nonetheless, there are sparks of good corporate governance practices in the region. Drawing from institutional theory and a case study of a largest economy, we explore the appropriateness or suitability of corporate governance regulatory frameworks in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our findings suggest that Nigeria needs an integrated system that combines elements of both rule-based and principle-based regulation, supported by a multi-stakeholder co-regulation strategy. This paper departs from the mainstream rule-based and principle-based categorisations by forging ahead new perspectives on corporate governance regulation, especially in weak market economies.     

The Political Roots of Corporate Social Responsibility

This article argues that whether and how a firm chooses to adopt Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives is conditional in part upon the domestic political institutional structures present in its home market. It demonstrates that economic globalization has increased the pressure applied to companies to develop CSR policies that might help overcome specific governance gaps associated with the globalization phenomenon. Drawing upon an examination of domestic institutions and overall political structure, it argues that the political conditions and expectations present in a company’s home market will condition whether a firm might pursue CSR activity. For home markets, it is posited that perceived electoral salience will be filtered through government type and ideology, and state/societal structures will influence if and how firms will use CSR. Specific arguments are developed from these categorizations. The article concludes with a discussion of how researchers might further explore links between CSR, domestic political structures, and corporate political activity.     

企业捐赠行为与公司价值重构——基于公众价值观的分析

对现代公司而言,社会公众的道德诉求能否与公司经济利益相兼容,是企业捐赠行为研究中难以回避的一个重要问题。由于引入投资者效用函数使得公众利益与"股东"利益保持一致,因而可以通过建模从理论层面上探讨企业捐赠行为与实现公司价值重构的可能性及其相关条件。结果表明:虽然捐赠减少了公司的现金流量,但投资者的价值认同使其在资本市场上依然能够实现较高的公司价值。因此,公众价值观的偏好程度及投资者对公司的溢价激励直接决定了公司价值的高低,即企业捐赠存在的合理与否。而培育理性的公众价值观是实现这种激励的重要保障。     

Corporate Identity of a Socially Responsible University – A Case from the Turkish Higher Education Sector

Facing increased competition, universities are driven to project a positive image to their internal and external stakeholders. Therefore some of these institutions have begun to develop and implement corporate identity programs as part of their corporate strategies. This study describes a Turkish higher education institution’s social responsibility initiatives. Along with this example, the study also analyzes a specific case using concepts from the Corporate Identity and Corporate Social Responsibility literature. The motives leading the university to manage its corporate identity, the social responsibility initiatives in the local and national communities, and the possible benefits of these initiatives for the parties involved are all identified. The major finding is that philanthropy is one of the main elements of Istanbul Bilgi University’s corporate identity program and that the university has altruistic motives for its social responsibility initiatives. M.G. Serap Atakan is an assistant professor at the Department of Business Administration of Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey. She is teaching and conducting researches on business ethics, corporate social responsibility and retailing. She has a co-authored article published in the Journal of Business Ethics. Tutku Eker is a doctorate student at the Department of Management of Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. Her research interests include business ethics, corporate social responsibility and branding. She is also a teaching assistant at the Department of Business Administration of Istanbul Bilgi University.     

Galvanising Shareholder Activism: A Prerequisite for Effective Corporate Governance and Accountability in Nigeria

Shareholder activism has been largely neglected in the few available studies on corporate governance in sub Saharan Africa. Following the recent challenges posed by the Cadbury Nigeria Plc, this paper examines shareholder activism in an evolving corporate governance institutional context and identifies strategic opportunities associated with shareholders’ empowerment through changes in code of corporate governance and recent developments in information and communications technologies in Nigeria; especially in relation to corporate social responsibility in Nigeria. It is expected that the paper would contribute to the scarce literature on corporate governance and accountability in Africa. Olufemi Amao (LLM, Warwick; LLM, Ibadan, Nigeria; LLB, OAU, Nigeria; BA, Ilorin, Nigeria; BL, NLS) is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Law, University College Cork, Ireland. He is a recipient of the President PhD Scholarship and the Department of Law Scholarship. His current research interests include Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Governance, Multinational Corporations and Human Rights. Kenneth Amaeshi is a Research Fellow at Warwick Business School. His research interests include commercialisation of intellectual property assets; governance of global innovation networks; R&D partnerships; sustainable innovation; multinational corporations and corporate social responsibility in developing economies. He is currently studying comparative political economy of corporate stakeholding and corporate social responsibility. He is the 2007 winner of the International award for excellence in the field of interdisciplinary social sciences, awarded by the international journal of interdisciplinary social sciences (Australia/USA).     

How much to give? — The effect of donation size on tactical and strategic success in cause-related marketing

In cause-related marketing (CM), companies promise a donation to a cause every time a consumer makes a purchase. We analyze the impact of the size of this donation on brand choice (tactical success) and brand image (strategic success). Our results reveal different effects of donation size on these success measures. For brand choice, the effect of donation size is moderated by a financial trade-off for consumers, whereas the effect on brand image is moderated by donation framing. Specifically, we show that donation size has a positive effect on brand choice if consumers face no financial trade-off; i.e., if they do not have to choose between triggering a donation or saving money. The effect is negative if a trade-off exists such that higher donations come at higher costs. Brand image is enhanced by larger donations if the framing is nonmonetary (e.g., the campaign promises the provision of vaccinations), whereas donation size has a negative effect if donation framing is monetary (e.g., the campaign states the Euro amount). If campaigns use a combination of both frames, the effect of donation size on brand image has an inverted U shape. Our results suggest that CM enhances tactical and strategic success only if firms select the right donation size, taking into account donation framing and financial trade-offs.     

“Society is Out There,Organisation is in Here”: On the Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility Held by Different Managerial Groups

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become an increasingly significant managerial concept, yet the manager as an agent of corporate bureaucracy has been substantially missing from both the analytical and conceptual literature dealing with CSR. This article, which is both interpretative in nature and specific in reference to the U.K. cultural context, represents an attempt at addressing this lacuna by utilising qualitative data to explore the perceptions of managers working in corporations with developed CSR programmes. Exploring managerial perceptions of motives for CSR initiatives, methods of stakeholder engagement, organisational integration of CSR and its impact on managerial work, this study concludes that an instrumental approach dominates, which indicates an external–internal organisational paradox in the design and execution of CSR initiatives.     

Marketing communication and corporate identity: are they integrated?

Although corporate identity was originally defined in terms of the visual representation of a company, later writers employed broader definitions, which have highlighted the importance of the various forms of communication in corporate identity management. Recent models of the corporate identity management process have reflected the importance of communication in the management of corporate identity. Corporate communication has been regarded as being composed of three forms: management, marketing and organizational communication. Most organizations are structured such that management and organizational communication are closely aligned with the corporate identity of an organization. However, the conjunction between corporate identity and marketing communication is less discernible. It has been noted that the interaction between corporate and marketing communication is 'tentative and embryonic in nature'. The authors conducted empirical research, which explored the extent to which corporate identity was integrated into the marketing communication campaigns of these practitioners. The conclusions from this exploratory research suggest that there are substantial barriers to the successful integration of corporate identity with marketing communications. Barriers such as the importance of integration not being accepted by clients, the focus of marketing managers on short-term goals, too many people involved with managing the core message of corporate identity and an ad hoc approach towards marketing communication were important. Further research into structural and behavioural ways of overcoming these barriers could prove to be extremely valuable.     

Corporate Responses to Shareholder Activists: Considering the Dialogue Alternative

This empirical study examines corporate responses to activist shareholder groups filing social-policy shareholder resolutions. Using resource dependency theory as our conceptual framing, we identify some of the drivers of corporate responses to shareholder activists. This study departs from previous studies by including a fourth possible corporate response, engaging in dialogue. Dialogue, an alternative to shareholder resolutions filed by activists, is a process in which corporations and activist shareholder groups mutually agree to engage in ongoing negotiations to deal with social issues. Based on a unique dataset of resolutions filed by member organizations of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility from 2002 to 2005 and the outcomes of these resolutions, our analysis finds that corporate managers are more likely to engage in dialogue with shareholder activists when the firm is larger, is more responsive to stakeholders, the CEO is the board chair, and the firm has a relatively lower percentage of institutional investors.     

Exploring Corporate Donation Behavior: A Case Study of Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Given that funding from governments and donations from individuals have declined and are unstable, it is important for nonprofit organizations to identify corporate donors' real motives for making contributions and potential corporate donors' reasons for not making contributions and to design appropriate marketing strategies accordingly. This paper utilized both in-depth interviews and a survey to explore these aspects with Taiwanese firms. The results indicate that, from these firms, Social Responsibility, followed by Top Management's Influences and External Solicitation, are the highest motives. It appears that enhancing Product Sales, Corporate Image, and Sales Promotion or Reducing Pressure from Competitors are not participant firms' primary motives when making corporate contributions. With regard to reasons for not making corporate contributions, the data reveal that Lack of Human Resources is the primary cause that leads participant firms to make no corporate contributions, followed by Insufficient Funds. This paper also develops scales for measuring motives of corporate philanthropy and reasons for not making corporate contributions.     

The interplay of corporate social responsibility and corporate political activity in emerging markets: The role of strategic flexibility in non‐market strategies

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate political activities are complementary, and the coordinated management of corporate social responsibility and corporate political activities may lead to better firm performance. However, corporate social responsibility and corporate political activities should be aligned carefully to utilize this complementarity. Strategic flexibility, which is the ability of a firm to adapt to changes in the external environment and make necessary organizational modifications quickly, can help firms to align their corporate social responsibility and corporate political activities. This paper empirically investigates the political dimension and the interactive dimension which describes interactions between corporate social responsibility and corporate political activities together with strategic flexibility and their effects on firm performance through a study of 142 firms in Turkey using moderated multiple regression methods. The results show that, while the political dimension had an inverted U‐shaped effect on firm performance, indicating that only a moderate level of corporate political activities may improve financial performance, the interactive dimension had positive but limited implications for performance. Finally, it was found strategic flexibility plays a positive moderating role on the relationships between the interactive dimension and firm performance. It is concluded that complementarity between corporate social responsibility and corporate political activities which may result in better performance is contingent on strategic flexibility.     

Institutional environment and Business Groups' resilience in Brazil

This article combines the institutional theory and political economy approaches to test hypotheses about how transitions in institutional environments affect the performance of Business Groups. Its primary hypothesis is that the different types of political connections established by Business Groups have moderating effects on this relationship. A sample of 1709 observations, from 317 distinct groups operating in Brazil between 2001 and 2009, was used in unobserved effects panel data models, which included the moderating effects of political connections. Our findings suggest that the institutional environment significantly affects Business Groups' performance and that this effect is moderated by political connections, when assessed in terms of the local or federal government as a minor shareholder of the Business Group. The moderating effects of political connections assessed through campaign donations were not conclusive.