Understanding corporate philanthropy in the hospitality industry

This study makes a unique contribution to the corporate social responsibility literature, both from a theoretical perspective and corporate philanthropy (CP) perspective that has been under-researched so far. Specifically, it extends the investigation of the motives of CP to the hospitality industry in the emerging country of Taiwan and is the first examination of the determinants of CP in the hospitality industry based on the value enhancement (VE) and agency cost (AC) theories. Previous studies found that either AC or VE determinants, not both, play a major role in making philanthropy decisions. This study reveal new and interesting findings using the data from 13 publicly traded hospitality companies in Taiwan collected between 1996 and 2011. Panel regression test results show that both VE determinants (labor intensity and profitability) and AC determinants (board size and the ratio of independent directors to total directors) were found to be significant factors in explaining the discretionary behavior of CP in the hospitality industry. Furthermore, the lagged philanthropy-to-sale ratio was also significantly related to CP decisions in the hospitality industry in Taiwan, suggesting that the behavior of CP in the Taiwanese hospitality industry is persistent. The possible explanation is that changing philanthropy pattern may lead to market-adverse expectations and reactions and damage the reputation of companies.