Corporate social responsibility strategy hinges largely on the CEO characteristics in the context of an emerging market. Based on a sample of 16,144 firm-year observations obtained from 1,370 unique Chinese-listed firms, which whether voluntarily issue CSR reports over the period 2008–2019, this paper empirically examined the impact of CEO characteristics on the likelihood of issuing CSR reports. We find that CEO age, MBA education, international experience and political ideology consciousness are positively associated with the possibility of issuing CSR reports, while (...) a newly appointed CEO will decrease the likelihood of issuing CSR reports. Moreover, we consider a contingent factor, namely CEO power over the board, can significantly enhance the relationship between CEO age, political ideology consciousness, and the likelihood of issuing CSR reports. Furthermore, there’s no significant evidence indicating that CEO power can moderate the relationship between MBA education, international experience, and the likelihood of issuing CSR reports. Nonetheless, CEO power moderates the negative relationship between a newly appointed CEO and CSR reporting initiatives. This study attaches understandings to the extant literature that how top management characteristics can shape firm CSR strategies. (shrink)

As a mixed-methods research in economics and psychology, this study aimed to analyze the influence from the intergenerational succession on the financialization level including asset financialization and revenue financialization, and further test the moderating effect of the heirs’ typical growing experience according to The Imprinting Theory, based on the 2009–2020 annual data of listed family enterprises of China. There were two key findings. First, the effect of Chinese family enterprises’ intergenerational succession on asset financialization was positively significant while the effect (...) on revenue financialization was not significant, indicating that the financialization behavior has not brought about effective financial profits. Second, among the heirs’ typical growing experiences, their parents’ entrepreneurial experience during their childhood, oversea study experience, and MBA education experience had the significantly positive moderating effects on the influence from intergeneration succession to asset financialization level of Chinese family enterprises, which was an important internal mechanism for the heirs to promote the financialization process of family enterprises. (shrink)

The current research investigates the interplay of board gender diversity, the quality of corporate social responsibility disclosure, and the green innovation performance of a firm. It examines the moderation effect of the CSRD on the relationship between corporate GIP and BGD. The study inculcates 3,736 firm-year observations of A-share listed Chinese firms from 2010 to 2019. Least square dummy variables method, generalized method of moments, and 2SLS are employed for the analysis of the study. The findings foster an affirmative and (...) significant impact of BGD on corporate GIP in terms of green innovation patents. Moreover, the quality of CSRD is also detected for a significant moderating effect on the relationship between BGD and corporate GIP. The quality of CSRD emerges to be an indicator for social resilience and female role congruence under the purview of the social resilience theory and the role congruence theory, respectively. This research would help managers and policymakers of developing nations in formulating environmental innovation strategies for corporate sustainability. (shrink)

Increasing evidence suggests that corporate sustainability is paradoxical in nature, as corporates and managers have to achieve economic, social, and environmental goals, simultaneously. While a paradox perspective has been broadly incorporated into sustainability research for more than a decade, it has resulted in limited improvement in our understanding of corporate sustainability paradox management. In this study, the authors conduct a systematic review of the literature of corporate sustainability paradox management by adopting the Smith–Lewis three-stage model of dynamic equilibrium. The results (...) reveal the following: Both environmental and cognitive factors manifest tensions arising from the sustainability paradox. While both proactive and defensive strategies are adopted to manage the tensions embedded in the corporate sustainability, the proactive strategy is more extensively studied in the current literature. Management strategies of corporate sustainability paradox are characterized as multi-level, multi-stage, and dealing with multiple paradoxes. Proactive strategies enable organizations to enjoy short-term and long-term sustainability benefits. The authors call for further research explicitly addressing the following areas: the paradoxical nature of corporate sustainability management; corporate sustainability paradox management of for-profit organizations; the micro-foundations of corporate sustainability paradox management; defensive strategies and new proactive strategies; and a unified standard of sustainability outcomes. The practical implications of this review are then elaborated. In practice, the results imply that organizations would best manage the corporate sustainability paradox by understanding the paradox and its equilibrium stages. This review and proposed research agenda are expected to deepen interdisciplinary knowledge and set the stage for interested scholars to undertake in their future inquiries. (shrink)

This study, based on Bem’s gender schema theory, investigates gender differences in and the relationship between gender role characteristics and entrepreneurial self-efficacy of 261 female and 265 male entrepreneurs in China. The results show that male and female entrepreneurs did not differ significantly in ESE or in masculine gender role characteristics, but differed significantly in feminine gender role characteristics. Examining four different stages in the entrepreneurial life cycle, we find that for female entrepreneurs, feminine characteristics had a positive influence on (...) ESE in the searching and planning stages of entrepreneurship, and masculine characteristics had a positive influence on ESE in the searching stage. For male entrepreneurs, feminine characteristics had a positive influence on ESE in the searching and planning stages, and masculine characteristics had a positive influence on ESE in the marshaling and implementing stages. In addition, one feminine characteristic, “Friendly,” showed a positive association with male entrepreneurs’ ESE in the marshaling stage. Overall, the feminine gender role factor of “Friendly” and the masculine gender role factor of “Compete” played a greater role on ESE than other characteristics. Implications of the findings are discussed. This study contributes a new perspective to extant research on entrepreneurial self-efficacy and female entrepreneurship. (shrink)

Chief executive officer tenacity plays an important role in corporate entrepreneurial activity. However, much less is known about its impact on employee intrapreneurship. Drawing from social information processing theory and upper echelons theory, this article examines the hitherto unexplored nexus between CEO tenacity and employee intrapreneurship, as well as the mediating role of corporate social responsibility. Quantitative data were collected through a survey administered to 294 employees working in different sectors that engage in CSR activities in China. Data analysis was (...) performed using hierarchical regression method through Stata 16.0. It was found that CEO tenacity was significantly positively correlated with employee strategic renewal behavior and employee venture behavior. The positive correlation between CEO tenacity and CSR was also significant. Besides, CSR partially mediated the relationship between CEO tenacity and employee strategic renewal behavior or employee venture behavior. This study extends research on CEO tenacity, CSR, or employee intrapreneurial behavior by providing a better understanding of the direct effects of CEO tenacity on employee intrapreneurial behavior and CSR. From the perspective of cross-fertilization between psychology and management, this study establishes the interface role of CSR by elucidating the intrinsic mechanism of CEOs with high levels of tenacity to stimulate employee intrapreneurial behavior through CSR. (shrink)