What Explains the Spread of Corporate Social Responsibility? The Role of Competitive Pressure and Institutional Isomorphism in the Diffusion of Voluntary Adoption.
What Explains the Spread of Corporate Social Responsibility? The Role of Competitive Pressure and Institutional Isomorphism in the Diffusion of Voluntary Adoption.
Date
2018-05
Authors
Han, Seung Min
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Business Administration
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Abstract
This study builds upon prior literature on the diffusion of corporate social responsibility
(CSR) by incorporating the potential role of its adoption by industry competitors and provides a
new perspective on the determinants of the spread of voluntary CSR adoption within a country.
The CSR perspective encompasses broader aspects of corporate purpose and roles, viewing the
firm as embedded in the ecosystem of its social and natural environment. This study argues that
firms make CSR adoption decisions in response to competitive pressure as well as institutional
mimetic pressures. Based on an event history analysis of 12-year longitudinal data from a sample
of 711 Korean publicly traded firms, the findings suggest that the CSR behavior of industry
competitors (the number of rival companies that have already adopted CSR), even that of nonleader
rivals within the same industry, is positively associated with a focal firm’s earlier adoption
of CSR, leading to the diffusion of CSR across firms. In addition, the empirical results indicate
that a firm’s CSR adoption decision is accelerated by institutional pressures arising from
institutional isomorphism (the number of non-rival companies that have adopted CSR) and
foreign stock market listing (the number of companies listed on foreign stock exchange). Finally,
whether and how these explanatory variables are related to the timing of adoption (early, middle,
and late) is analyzed. This study implies that both competitive and institutional mimetic
pressures play significant roles in corporate decision making on voluntary CSR adoption.
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Keywords
Corporate Social Responsibility,
Adoption,
Diffusion,
Competitive Reaction
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