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To be philanthropic when being international: Evidence from Chinese family firms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2017

Xingqiang Du ,
Quan Zeng  and
Yingying Chang
Xingqiang Du*
Affiliation:
School of Management, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China
Quan Zeng
Affiliation:
School of Management, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China
Yingying Chang
Affiliation:
School of Business Administration, Jimei University, Xiamen, Fujian, China
*
Corresponding author: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Abstract

This study examines the influence of internationalization on corporate philanthropy, and further investigates the moderating effect of political participation of CEO (Chief Executive Officer). Using a sample of Chinese family firms and hand-collected data on corporate philanthropy, internationalization, and CEO’s political participation, our findings show that internationalization is significantly positively associated with corporate philanthropy, suggesting that internationalization plays an important role in promoting corporate philanthropy because of the mounting interaction of corporate philanthropic consciousness among multinational companies. In addition, CEO’s political participation reinforces the positive association between internationalization and corporate philanthropy. Above findings are robust to a variety of sensitivity tests and further our conclusions are still valid after controlling for the endogeneity between internationalization and corporate philanthropy.

Keywords

corporate philanthropyinternationalizationCEO’s political participationChinese family firms
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , May 2018 , pp. 424 - 449
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2017 

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