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Social Responsibility Beyond the Corporate: Executive Mental Accounting Across Sectoral and Issue Domains

Author

Listed:
  • Razvan Lungeanu

    (D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115)

  • Klaus Weber

    (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208)

Abstract

Business elites influence the allocation of resources to a range of causes related to the social good, such as to corporate community or environmental programs. We extend research on executive influence on corporate attention to alternative causes by showing how chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) engagement in two distinct institutional domains, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and independent foundation philanthropy, are interrelated. We draw on the psychology of moral accounting to refine the assumption of personal consistency prevalent in studies of executives’ corporate influence. Specifically, we show that executives use flexible means to realize an overall aspiration of doing good, resulting in divergent emphases in their CSR and philanthropic causes. Evidence comes from a panel of 677 corporations linked to 309 foundations through 1,109 CEOs during the period 2003–2011. CEOs compensated for deficits in their firms’ CSR record by joining the board of trustees of specific nonprofit foundations, but subsequently advanced divergent cause priorities in the corporation and the foundation. Our work suggests that studies of CSR and of executive influence on organizations benefit from taking into account executives’ cross-domain engagement.

Suggested Citation

  • Razvan Lungeanu & Klaus Weber, 2021. "Social Responsibility Beyond the Corporate: Executive Mental Accounting Across Sectoral and Issue Domains," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(6), pages 1473-1491, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:32:y:2021:i:6:p:1473-1491
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2021.1438
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Heng Zhang & Binglin Gong, 2025. "Can Green Needs Always Promote Green Innovation? Moral Licensing in Corporate Environmental Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 201(1), pages 169-191, October.
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    4. Zhang, Lei & Chen, Sisi & Tong, Hangyan & Qin, Quande, 2026. "When government does too well? Perceived environmental governance performance and citizens' green consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    5. Meng Li & Yan Liu, 2025. "Mental Accounting in Allocating Capacity," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 27(5), pages 1497-1514, September.

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