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Does community environment matter to corporate social responsibility?

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  • Wu, Dejun
  • Lin, Chen
  • Liu, Sibo

Abstract

How does the preference of local stakeholders shape firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Using a twenty-year U.S. sample, this paper examines the effects of the community demographic and cultural environment on CSR. We find that firms located in counties with more senior residents and/or higher levels of religiosity display higher degree of corporate social responsibility. In addition, we find the positive effects of local seniors and religiosity are stronger for less financial constrained firms. The result is robust after controlling for firm fixed effects, operating state trends and incorporation state trends. Taken together, our evidence supports a stakeholder theory of corporate social responsibility.

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  • Wu, Dejun & Lin, Chen & Liu, Sibo, 2016. "Does community environment matter to corporate social responsibility?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 127-135.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:18:y:2016:i:c:p:127-135
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2016.04.010
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate social responsibility; Stakeholders; Community; Seniors; Religiosity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G02 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Behavioral Finance: Underlying Principles
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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