Purpose: Digital transformation has been highlighted for its significant implications for CSR practices, though mixed results are presented in the literature. This study focuses on the impact of digital transformation on CSR decoupling, which refers to the misalignment between CSR disclosure and actual CSR performance—an issue detrimental to firms in the long run. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, we examine the effect of firms’ digital transformation on CSR decoupling through the lens of corporate governance among Chinese listed manufacturing companies from 2015 to 2020, using two-stage least squares regression (2SLS) based on instrumental variables and Heckman two-stage analysis. Findings: Our results reveal a negative relationship between digital transformation and CSR decoupling. Digital transformation is also found to be positively related to the coverage of information intermediaries and the quality of internal control systems, both of which effectively curb firms’ CSR decoupling behaviors. These factors are verified as mediators in the relationship between digital transformation and CSR decoupling. Originality/value: This study highlights the implications of digital transformation for CSR decoupling in China, where digitalization has gained momentum but CSR misconduct is not uncommon. Our research contributes to the literature on digitalization, CSR decoupling, and corporate governance and provides practical insights for practitioners seeking to mitigate CSR decoupling through digital transformation.

While outside chief executive officers (CEOs) are often viewed as catalysts for strategic change compared to their inside counterparts, this study reveals their potential to undermine firms’ environmental responsibility. Integrating agency theory with social capital theory, we investigate whether and how board-level social capital can moderate the sustainability risks associated with outside CEO succession. Using a panel dataset of 989 pollution-intensive Chinese firms from 2010 to 2022, we apply propensity score matching (PSM) to reduce endogeneity in CEO succession decisions, followed by fixed-effects regressions. The empirical results show that outside CEOs, particularly during their early tenure, are more likely to prioritize short-term financial performance over environmental goals—due to limited firm-specific knowledge and heightened external pressure. However, external board social capital (e.g., ties to government and industry associations) enhances resource access and post-appointment accountability, while internal social capital (e.g., co-working experience among directors) establishes common norms that facilitate strategic continuity. This study positions board social capital as a relational governance mechanism that complements formal oversight. The findings contribute to succession and environmental research by linking executive origin to sustainability outcomes and provide practical guidance on leveraging board networks to support leadership transitions.

PurposeOpen innovation enables firms to incorporate external expertise and resources into their innovations. However, it is far from easy to obtain sufficient support from external contributors due to potential concerns about the risks of opportunism and appropriation. This paper aims to investigate whether firms' engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) contributes to their open innovation, considering the contingency factors of technological capability, environmental dynamism and state ownership based on capability and motivation perspectives.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of Chinese listed firms covering the period from 2009 to 2018, instrumental variable and propensity score matching approaches were used to address the endogenous problems.FindingsThis paper obtains empirical results showing that firms engaged in higher levels of CSR produce more joint outputs (co-owned patents) and that this effect is strengthened by technological capability and environmental dynamism. Among state-owned enterprises, CSR engagement is less impactful with regard to open innovation. It is further shown that open innovation is a primary channel through which CSR engagement enhances innovative efficiency.Originality/valueThis study enriches the knowledge of the antecedents of open innovation and contributes to the debate regarding the relationship between CSR and innovation by establishing a relationship between CSR and open innovation, whereas most prior studies focus on how the input and output of innovation are affected by CSR initiatives.

The government-initiated campaign for targeted poverty alleviation (TPA) not only affords corporations an opportunity to extend their presence into underdeveloped regions but also imposes a consequential burden upon them to contribute to ameliorating poverty. Firms' motivations in this endeavor are intricately linked to the alignment of their business strategies with the TPA activities. We posit that firms adopting a cost leadership approach are inclined to actively partake in poverty alleviation, due to a congruence between their strategic positioning and the activities intrinsic to poverty alleviation. And firms embracing a differentiation strategy are impelled by extrinsic pressures to engage in poverty alleviation, as they face heightened societal expectations regarding their involvement in such altruistic endeavors. Drawing from a dataset comprising Chinese listed firms from 2017 to 2020, our empirical findings bring to light a significant correlation between both cost leadership and differentiation strategies and firms' contributions to the TPA campaign. And, the impact of a cost leadership strategy on firms' involvement in poverty alleviation activities surpasses that of a differentiation strategy. This influence is further accentuated for firms contending with rivals pursuing a differentiated approach in the competitive landscape, which may block their way moving upmarket. Moreover, the nexus between a differentiation strategy and a firm's participation in poverty alleviation gains more strength where local government intervention in the economy is more pronounced. This study delves into the nuanced motivations that underpin firms' participation in the TPA campaign within the framework of business strategies, offering insights for both policymakers and business practitioners.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the antecedents of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from the perspective of competitive dynamics and proposes a correlation of CSR between competing firms because rival firms’ engagement in CSR induces the focal firm’s catch-up to keep pace with them. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of Chinese listed companies through the lens of firm dyads, and drawing on the awareness-motivation-capability (AMC) framework, a set of contingencies of firms’ competitive catch-up in CSR are examined, including the visibility of its competitors, the interdependence between the focal firm and its competitors and the focal firm’s resource slack. Findings The empirical results reveal that a focal firm’s CSR is in a positive relationship with that of its competitors, which is strengthened by the visibility of its competitors, the interdependence between the focal firm and its competitors, and is affected by the focal firm’s resource slack. Originality/value These findings uncover the interplay of CSR among competitors, enriching our understanding of its antecedents by extending the AMC framework to the CSR context.

Institutional pressures are major driving forces for firms' green innovation. However, there is significant heterogeneity in firms' responses to these forces due to the complex information environment within the institutional field. Social ties are known to provide information and resources. This study explores how board social ties, including business and political ties, shape firms' responsiveness to formal and informal institutional forces related to green innovation. Using a dataset from Chinese listed companies in the manufacturing sector, we propose that firms' business ties strengthen the effects of various institutional pressures on green innovation. On the other hand, political ties strengthen the impact of environmental regulation on green innovation but weaken the influence of imitative pressure on green innovation. This suggests that political ties can be a double-edged sword in firms' responses to institutional pressures. This research contributes to institutional theory and social capital theory, offering implications for green innovation strategies.

Purpose This study aims to explore the internationalization of multinational enterprises (MNEs) from China and aims to examine the relationship between Chinese MNEs’ duration of internationalization and export intensity, and the contingent roles of the home country government. Design/methodology/approach By extending the springboard theory with institutional and cost-benefit analyses, the authors elaborate a two-phase framework of internationalization to explain how Chinese MNEs develop their international business under the influences of the home country government. Furthermore, the authors apply the Heckman two-stage method based on a panel data set of 19,994 firm-year observations of Chinese listed firms in 2008–2018 to test the hypotheses. Findings The research findings demonstrate an inverted U-shape relationship between the duration of internationalization and the export intensity of MNEs from China. The export intensity of MNEs from China increases during the initial phase of internationalization, and decreases during the subsequent. A further study reveals that the inverted U-shape of Chinese non-SOEs is steeper than that of SOEs, and this moderating effect is more salient after the Belt and Road Initiative. These results highlight the influence of the home government through state ownership and policies on the inverted U-shaped relationship. Originality/value This study helps to refine the understanding of Chinese MNEs’ global expansion by addressing time as an explicit dimension and revealing the mechanism of state ownership and the home country governmental policy in the dynamic internationalization process.

This study investigates how security analysts' response to focal firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies varies with the level of CSR engagement among peer firms, about which contradictory arguments can be drawn from the perspectives of legitimacy and competitive dynamics. Legitimacy theory underscores the importance of conformity to peers' behaviors, while the competitive dynamics perspective suggests that firms should differentiate from their peers. The optimal distinctiveness theory suggests an orchestration between CSR conformity and CSR differentiation, combining the arguments of legitimacy and competitive dynamics. Based upon a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2009 to 2018, this study uses a second-hand panel dataset and employs three-way interactions and the generalized method of moments (GMM) system. The empirical results show that as CSR engagement among peer firms increases, heavier legitimacy pressure is imposed on focal firms, and their CSR scope conformity attracts more analyst coverage, and this effect is more prominent for firms in institutionally developed regions. On the other hand, the competitive advantage gained from CSR emphasis differentiation is weakened by rivals' engagement in CSR, and the influence of CSR emphasis differentiation on analyst recommendation is weakened by peers' CSR engagement, and in highly competitive industries, this effect of peers' CSR engagement is stronger. We propose that peers' CSR engagement has different impacts on the importance of CSR conformity and differentiation. Finally, both the theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This study explores the mechanisms through which international diversification strategies and the global construction industrial context shape the competitiveness of emerging economic contractors. Drawing on an internal-external matching perspective, this study analyzes the matching between a contractor's international diversification ambidexterity (depth or breadth strategy) and industrial features (munificence or dynamism). Using panel data on Chinese contractors listed in Engineering News Record TOP 225/250 between 2012 and 2020, the empirical findings indicate that positive relationships exist between a contractor's diversification ambidexterity and competitiveness. Furthermore, we find two positive matching effects on contractor competitiveness: one is between depth strategy and industrial munificence, and the other is between breadth strategy and industrial dynamism. This study makes valuable contributions to both the theory and practice of international businesses for emerging economy contractors and the global construction market.

The dynamics and instability of economic policies exercise considerable influence on firm behaviors. This study aims to explore the impact of economic policy uncertainty on the level of CSR that firms are engaged in and the heterogeneity of this impact across firms. Using a dataset of Chinese-listed companies from 2011 to 2019, which consists of 837 different firms and 4551 firm-year observations, the results show a negative response of CSR to economic policy uncertainty in China, which is mitigated by the political connections and resource slack that firms possess. These findings underscore the importance of a predictable business environment for CSR behaviors and the capability of firms to cope with uncertainty.

Purpose This study aims to examine the corporate donations in response to the intensive outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in China in 2020 and proposes that the local spread of COVID-19 is negatively associated with corporate donations due to the non-trivial costs, but meanwhile, strong institutional pressures based on institutional theory are put on firms to donate, which thus creates a dilemma for firms. This study further argues that the dilemma is heterogeneous across different institutional fields. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of Chinese listed companies during the intensive outbreak of this pandemic, a two-stage Heckman selection model is conducted to address the potential sample selection bias. Findings This study reveals a negative relationship between the local spread of COVID-19 and corporate donations, confirms the driving effect of various types of institutional pressure and finds that the intensity of the COVID-19 pandemic strengthens the effect of coercive pressure and mimetic pressure on philanthropic giving but weakens the effect of normative pressure. Originality/value This study extends the knowledge on firms’ philanthropic response to natural crises, as the COVID-19 pandemic has not only led to a public health crisis but also to a global economic crisis, and how the effects of institutional pressures are affected by a situational crisis. This work enriches the literature on corporate philanthropy and crisis management and has some implications for both policymakers and business practitioners.

Prior studies have suggested that a large pay gap within the top management team (TMT) can motivate executives to outperform each other and that such competition consequently enhances productivity. We argue that a high pay disparity elicits managerial negative efforts and promotes bribery activities, but this effect can be mitigated by demographic diversity in the TMT and also can be affected by the characteristics of the CEO–TMT demographic interface. Using a sample of listed Chinese firms, our empirical results show that pay disparity is positively associated with bribery expenditure and this association derives mainly from the vertical component when pay disparity is examined via its vertical and horizontal components. In addition, we found that the positive relationship between pay disparity and bribery is weakened when the non-CEO executives have diverse demographic characteristics, and it is strengthened if the CEO is demographically similar to the other executives. This study contributes to the literature on corruption and TMTs by revealing the implications of managerial incentives for firm bribery and by elucidating the role of TMT composition.

Regarding the relationship between CEO power and firm risk, contradictory views can be deduced from managerial power theory and organization theory. This study tries to reconcile these contradictions by delving into the differences in the types of CEO power. Using a sample of Chinese listed companies, we find that the formal power CEOs derive from ownership has a positive relationship with firm risk, but CEOs' informal power that originates from expertise is negatively associated with firm risk. Furthermore, CSR is verified as a mediator in the relationship.

The excessive consumption of natural resources in industrial development has led scholars to pay increasing attention to firms’ impact on the environment. Faced with considerable environmental pressure, many firms have begun to integrate green innovation into their business strategies. Based on the institutional theory and absorptive capacity perspective, this study examines the role of different institutional pillars on firms’ green innovation decision and further evaluates the interaction effect of absorptive capacity with institutional pillars. Using datasets from listed Chinese companies, this study examines the above hypotheses. As a result, we identify the heterogeneous effect of institutional pressures on green technology innovation and green management innovation and find a significant effect of absorptive capacity on the relationship between institutional pressures and green technology innovation. The conclusion of this study enriches the literature on institutional theory and the absorptive capacity perspective and has implications for firms’ green innovation practices.

Purpose Threats from the informal sector have become an important concern among formal firms. As a response to these threats, formal firms can adopt product innovation (PI) and marketing innovation (MI) strategies to differentiate themselves. The purpose of this paper is to examine how firm-level technical capability and external institutional quality affect firms’ reactions to the threats from informal firms by adopting innovative activities. Design/methodology/approach Based on attention-based view (ABV), an empirical study is conducted by using firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey in 2013. Findings The findings indicate that when faced with competition from informal firms, formal firms will intensify their innovation activities in both MI and PI, and their technical capability mitigates the competitive threats from informal sectors and thus weakens the impact of informal competitors on the level of product and marketing innovations. Moreover, it is found that the improvement of institutional quality reduces formal firms’ urgency to introduce new products when facing informal competitors. However, this improvement strengthens the impact of informal rivalry on formal firms’ innovation in marketing methods. Originality/value Previous studies that investigate the influence of informal threats are focused on technological innovation (e.g., PI and process innovation) strategies, but little knowledge is provided on non-technological innovative strategies, such as marketing strategies (e.g., MI and organizational innovation). This study contributes to the innovation literature by delving into the circumstances under which PI and/or MI is adopted to counter informal rivals. The findings enrich ABV by investigating how inter-firm resource similarity and marketing commonality strengthen top managers' attention to competition from informal firms.

As an important method for normalizing firms' environmental behaviors, regulatory inspection has received much attention in both practice and research. However, a consistent conclusion regarding whether and under what conditions regulatory inspection leads to green innovation is lacking. Drawing on the attention-based view, we argue that the threats or opportunities that top managers perceive from environmental inspection affect the attention they pay to the strategy of green innovation as a response. We hypothesize that firms lacking the capability of regulatory compliance are less likely to invest in green innovation and that the development of promarket institutions diverts managers' attention from reacting to governmental inspection. Using survey data on Chinese industrial firms, we confirm these hypotheses, the theoretical and practical implications of which are discussed.

In transitional economies, the governing central authorities impose heavy regulatory burdens on firms, which results in great costs for business in terms of time, resources, and other constraints. However, quality assurance through decentralized institutions (such as private certified management standards) is rapidly becoming more prevalent. This study examines the contingent implications that such decentralized institutions have for centralized regulation by focusing on the relationship between international certifications and regulatory burdens. As two prominent features of the institutional environment in emerging economies, the threat of competition from the informal sector and corruption may influence the relationship between international certifications and regulatory burdens. These features are therefore examined in terms of their moderating roles. The study draws on institutional and signaling theories to interpret data from a survey conducted by the World Bank in China in 2012. The empirical results show that international certification is negatively associated with regulatory burdens. This relationship is strengthened by the threat of competition from the informal sector, but mitigated by a corrupt business environment. Our study contributes to the institutional literature and to research on international certifications, and it has implications for both business management and governmental policy.

Drawing on institutional and organizational learning theories, this study empirically investigates the imitation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) between firms tied by board interlocks, an important type of corporate social network tie. We propose a positive relationship between the CSR engagement of a focal firm and that of its tied-to partners and examine how this relationship is moderated by the characteristics of both the focal and tied-to firms. Using a sample of Chinese-listed companies, empirical evidence is provided to show that a firm's engagement in symbolic CSR is in a positive relationship with that of its tied-to partners; this relationship becomes stronger for smaller firms and those facing high uncertainty. Furthermore, when firms are linked to smaller firms, this relationship becomes more prominent. Our findings contribute to the CSR and social network literature, as well as the research on strategic imitation. Finally, implications for business management and government policy are discussed.

本文以2012-2016年沪深A股上市公司为研究样本,探究高管团队性别多样性对公司绩效的影响.研究发现,女性高管比例与公司价值存在正相关关系,与财务绩效存在负相关关系;然而,高管性别多样性指标与公司价值存在负相关关系,与财务绩效存在正相关关系.企业生命周期可以负向调节高管性别多样性与公司绩效的关系,而战略变革正向调节高管性别多样性与企业价值之间的关系.这些说明高管团队中女性成员的参与在一定程度上有利于提升公司绩效,尤其是在企业发展初期,以及进行战略变革时,企业需要依据实际情况调整女性高管的数量,以产生更好的绩效.

Green technology innovation has received continuous attention from the business sector in recent years, yet few studies have examined the internal mechanisms and contingent conditions that link green technology innovation to a firm's financial performance. Using data from 209 listed companies that belong to heavily polluting manufacturing industries, collected via the content analysis method, we find that green process innovation has a positive impact on green product innovation, and that both green process innovation and green product innovation can improve a firm's financial performance. We also find that green product innovation mediates the relationship between green process innovation and a firm's financial performance, and that a firm's green image moderates the relationship between green product innovation and financial performance. However, our study shows that the moderating effect of green subsidies on the relationship between green product innovation and a firm's financial performance is not supported. Based on these findings, we provide several recommendations for managers and government entities to effectively implement green technology innovation.