Ownership influences on corporate social responsibility in the Indian context
Department
Management and Entrepreneurship
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2018
Abstract
The empirical evidence from the extant literature has been equivocal regarding the influence exerted by different ownership types on corporate social responsibility (CSR), especially in developing countries such as India characterized by institutional voids. We use a longitudinal panel dataset of 500 large Indian companies to test a model of corporate ownership forms as key determinants of CSR engagement in India. Based on neo-institutional theory, our model of CSR determinants investigates the roles of three salient aspects of ownership namely multinational ownership/affiliation, state ownership and family ownership and control, after controlling for the influence of firm size, firm age, leverage, the availability of slack resources, profitability and various governance attributes. Our ordered logit regressions indicate strong support for the role of multinational ownership and family control and management in promoting higher levels of CSR engagement. Contrary to expectations, public sector ownership appeared to negatively impact CSR engagement. We offer our conjectures on this anomalous finding and the research possibilities it opens up.
Journal Title
Asia Pacific Journal of Management
Journal ISSN
0217-4561
Volume
35
Issue
4
First Page
1107
Last Page
1136
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1007/s10490-017-9546-8