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Competition and Institutional Drivers of Corporate Social Performance

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  • Johan Graafland
  • Hugo Smid

Abstract

Research into corporate social performance (CSP) recently shifted to studying its political economic dimensions. In this paper, we test the influence of price and technological competition and two institutional factors, mandatory reporting and monitoring by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and media, on CSP. Combining survey data with CSP ratings from Sustainalytics, we find that technological competition, monitoring by NGOs and media and mandatory CSP reporting foster CSP. However, price competition is not found to significantly influence CSP. This indicates that there is no support for the existence of a trade-off between anti-trust policy and CSP. Furthermore, our findings imply that governments can stimulate CSP by making CSP reporting mandatory. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Johan Graafland & Hugo Smid, 2015. "Competition and Institutional Drivers of Corporate Social Performance," De Economist, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 303-322, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:decono:v:163:y:2015:i:3:p:303-322
    DOI: 10.1007/s10645-015-9255-y
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    Cited by:

    1. Johan Graafland, 2020. "Competition in technology and innovation, motivation crowding, and environmental policy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 137-145, January.
    2. Francisco Gomez Martinez & Sander Onderstal & Maarten Pieter Schinkel, 2019. "Can Collusion Promote Corporate Social Responsibility? Evidence from the Lab," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 19-034/VII, Tinbergen Institute, revised 12 Nov 2019.
    3. Johan Graafland & Niels Noorderhaven, 2020. "Technological Competition, Innovation Motive and Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Top Managers of European SMEs," De Economist, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 1-22, March.
    4. Charl de Villiers & Jing Jia & Zhongtian Li, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility: A review of empirical research using Thomson Reuters Asset4 data," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4523-4568, December.
    5. Aruna Jha & Vijita Singh Aggrawal, 2019. "Institutional pressures for corporate social responsibility implementation: a study of Indian executives," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 16(4), pages 555-577, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate social performance; Institutions; Competition; Mandatory reporting; NGOs; L1; M14;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

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