IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/sbusec/v59y2022i2d10.1007_s11187-021-00551-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can corporate social responsibility mitigate the liability of newness? Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Yan Zuo

    (Zhejiang University)

  • Shenyang Jiang

    (Zhejiang University)

  • Jiang Wei

    (Zhejiang University)

Abstract

This paper examines whether engagement in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities mitigates the liability of newness (LoN) faced with new ventures and thus contributes to their financial performance. We theorize that investments in CSR are especially beneficial for young firms confronted with this liability. Undertaking CSR activities can serve as a balanced solution to both the internal and external contingencies associated with LoN without incurring considerable costs and thereby lead to the better performance of new ventures. In addition, we further investigate the boundary conditions of CSR in mitigating LoN and identify family ownership and firm age as two important determinants of the worth of CSR engagement. CSR is expected to create more value for family-owned or nascent new ventures. Taking Chinese private firms as our sample, we find supportive empirical evidence.

Suggested Citation

  • Yan Zuo & Shenyang Jiang & Jiang Wei, 2022. "Can corporate social responsibility mitigate the liability of newness? Evidence from China," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 573-592, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:59:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11187-021-00551-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s11187-021-00551-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11187-021-00551-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11187-021-00551-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Williamson & Gary Lynch-Wood & John Ramsay, 2006. "Drivers of Environmental Behaviour in Manufacturing SMEs and the Implications for CSR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 317-330, September.
    2. Min Zhang & Lijun Ma & Jun Su & Wen Zhang, 2014. "Do Suppliers Applaud Corporate Social Performance?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(4), pages 543-557, June.
    3. Wiklund, Johan & Baker, Ted & Shepherd, Dean, 2010. "The age-effect of financial indicators as buffers against the liability of newness," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 423-437, July.
    4. Boubakri, Narjess & Cosset, Jean-Claude & Saffar, Walid, 2008. "Political connections of newly privatized firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 654-673, December.
    5. Yung-Ming Shiu & Shou-Lin Yang, 2017. "Does engagement in corporate social responsibility provide strategic insurance-like effects?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 455-470, February.
    6. Danny Miller & Isabelle Le Breton‐Miller & Richard H. Lester, 2010. "Family ownership and acquisition behavior in publicly‐traded companies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 201-223, February.
    7. Harry P Bowen & Dirk De Clercq, 2008. "Institutional context and the allocation of entrepreneurial effort," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(4), pages 747-767, June.
    8. Demsetz, Harold & Villalonga, Belen, 2001. "Ownership structure and corporate performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 209-233, September.
    9. Mariarosa Scarlata & Jennifer Walske & Andrew Zacharakis, 2017. "Ingredients Matter: How the Human Capital of Philanthropic and Traditional Venture Capital Differs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 623-635, October.
    10. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Robert Nash & Ajay Patel, 2019. "New Evidence on the Role of the Media in Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 1051-1079, February.
    11. Bryan W. Husted & Dima Jamali & Walid Saffar, 2016. "Near and dear? The role of location in CSR engagement," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(10), pages 2050-2070, October.
    12. Qin Han & Jennifer E Jennings & Runjuan Liu & P Devereaux Jennings, 2019. "Going home and helping out? Returnees as propagators of CSR in an emerging economy," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(6), pages 857-872, August.
    13. Jun Su & Jia He, 2010. "Does Giving Lead to Getting? Evidence from Chinese Private Enterprises," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 73-90, April.
    14. Shuo Wang & Yuhui Gao & Gerard Hodgkinson & Denise Rousseau & Patrick Flood, 2015. "Opening the Black Box of CSR Decision Making: A Policy-Capturing Study of Charitable Donation Decisions in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(3), pages 665-683, May.
    15. Stephen Brammer & Andrew Millington, 2008. "Does it pay to be different? An analysis of the relationship between corporate social and financial performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(12), pages 1325-1343, December.
    16. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    17. Zahra, Shaker A., 1996. "Technology strategy and new venture performance: A study of corporate-sponsored and independent biotechnology ventures," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 289-321, July.
    18. Birley, Sue, 1987. "New ventures and employment growth," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 2(2), pages 155-165.
    19. Yongqiang Gao & Taïeb Hafsi, 2015. "Government Intervention, Peers’ Giving and Corporate Philanthropy: Evidence from Chinese Private SMEs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 433-447, December.
    20. Wei Shi & Brian L. Connelly & Robert E. Hoskisson, 2017. "External corporate governance and financial fraud: cognitive evaluation theory insights on agency theory prescriptions," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(6), pages 1268-1286, June.
    21. Keld Laursen & Francesca Masciarelli & Toke Reichstein, 2016. "A Matter of Location: The Role of Regional Social Capital in Overcoming the Liability of Newness in R&D Acquisition Activities," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(9), pages 1537-1550, September.
    22. Nancy Huyghebaert & Linda M. Van de Gucht, 2004. "Incumbent strategic behavior in financial markets and the exit of entrepreneurial start‐ups," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(7), pages 669-688, July.
    23. Caroline Flammer, 2018. "Competing for government procurement contracts: The role of corporate social responsibility," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 1299-1324, May.
    24. Zhou, Wubiao, 2018. "Property Rights, Deregulation, and Entrepreneurial Development in a Transition Economy," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 73-103, March.
    25. Andy Cosh & Xiaolan Fu & Alan Hughes, 2012. "Organisation structure and innovation performance in different environments," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 39(2), pages 301-317, September.
    26. Zhao, Hongxin & Lu, Jiangyong, 2016. "Contingent value of political capital in bank loan acquisition: Evidence from founder-controlled private enterprises in China," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 153-174.
    27. Susan Coleman, 2004. "The "Liability of Newness" and Small Firm Access to Debt Capital: Is There a Link?," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 9(2), pages 37-60, Summer.
    28. Ge, Jianhua & Stanley, Laura J. & Eddleston, Kimberly & Kellermanns, Franz W., 2017. "Institutional deterioration and entrepreneurial investment: The role of political connections," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 405-419.
    29. Angeloantonio Russo & Francesco Perrini, 2010. "Investigating Stakeholder Theory and Social Capital: CSR in Large Firms and SMEs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 207-221, January.
    30. Assâad El Akremi & Jean-Pascal Gond & Valérie Swaen & Kenneth de Roeck & Jacques Igalens, 2018. "How Do Employees Perceive Corporate Responsibility? Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Corporate Stakeholder Responsibility Scale," Post-Print halshs-01520959, HAL.
    31. Daniela P. Blettner & Zi-Lin He & Songcui Hu & Richard A. Bettis, 2015. "Adaptive aspirations and performance heterogeneity: Attention allocation among multiple reference points," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(7), pages 987-1005, July.
    32. Kourilsky, Marilyn L. & Walstad, William B., 1998. "Entrepreneurship and female youth: knowledge, attitudes, gender differences, and educational practices," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 77-88, January.
    33. Carmon, Anna F. & Miller, Amy N. & Raile, Amber N.W. & Roers, Michelle M., 2010. "Fusing family and firm: Employee perceptions of perceived homophily, organizational justice, organizational identification, and organizational commitment in family businesses," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 1(4), pages 210-223, December.
    34. Batia M. Wiesenfeld & Sumita Raghuram & Raghu Garud, 1999. "Communication Patterns as Determinants of Organizational Identification in a Virtual Organization," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 10(6), pages 777-790, December.
    35. Joanna Tochman Campbell & Lorraine Eden & Stewart R Miller, 2012. "Multinationals and corporate social responsibility in host countries: Does distance matter?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 43(1), pages 84-106, January.
    36. Taiyuan Wang & Pratima Bansal, 2012. "Social responsibility in new ventures: profiting from a long‐term orientation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(10), pages 1135-1153, October.
    37. Paul C. Godfrey & Craig B. Merrill & Jared M. Hansen, 2009. "The relationship between corporate social responsibility and shareholder value: an empirical test of the risk management hypothesis," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 425-445, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jiayi Lyu & Wanxing Jiang, 2023. "Internationalization Pace, Social Network Effect, and Performance among China’s Platform-Based Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-21, May.
    2. Zhong, Xi & Ren, Ge, 2023. "Independent and joint effects of CSR and CSI on the effectiveness of digital transformation for transition economy firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Weiqi Dai & Mingqing Liao, 2019. "Entrepreneurial attention to deregulations and reinvestments by private firms: Evidence from China," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 36(4), pages 1221-1250, December.
    2. Liu, Yaosong & Zhang, Min & Ye, Tingting & Zhang, Yue, 2019. "Does giving always lead to getting? Evidence from the collapse of charity credibility in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    3. Franck Brulhart & Sandrine Gherra & Bertrand V. Quelin, 2019. "Do Stakeholder Orientation and Environmental Proactivity Impact Firm Profitability?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 25-46, August.
    4. Wenbin Sun & Shanji Yao & Rahul Govind, 2019. "Reexamining Corporate Social Responsibility and Shareholder Value: The Inverted-U-Shaped Relationship and the Moderation of Marketing Capability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 1001-1017, December.
    5. Wu, Bao & Jin, Chenfei & Monfort, Abel & Hua, Danni, 2021. "Generous charity to preserve green image? Exploring linkage between strategic donations and environmental misconduct," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 839-850.
    6. Zhu, Minghao & Yeung, Andy C.L. & Zhou, Honggeng, 2021. "Diversify or concentrate: The impact of customer concentration on corporate social responsibility," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    7. Nan Zhou & Heli Wang, 0. "Foreign subsidiary CSR as a buffer against parent firm reputation risk," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 0, pages 1-27.
    8. Heli Wang & Ming Jia & Zhe Zhang, 2021. "Good Deeds Done in Silence: Stakeholder Management and Quiet Giving by Chinese Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(3), pages 649-674, May.
    9. Dongyoung Lee, 2020. "Corporate social responsibility of U.S.‐listed firms headquartered in tax havens," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(9), pages 1547-1571, September.
    10. Nan Zhou & Heli Wang, 2020. "Foreign subsidiary CSR as a buffer against parent firm reputation risk," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(8), pages 1256-1282, October.
    11. Lu, Hao & Oh, Won-Yong & Kleffner, Anne & Chang, Young Kyun, 2021. "How do investors value corporate social responsibility? Market valuation and the firm specific contexts," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 14-25.
    12. Ming Jia & Zhe Zhang, 2014. "How Does the Stock Market Value Corporate Social Performance? When Behavioral Theories Interact with Stakeholder Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 433-465, December.
    13. Saridakis, Charalampos & Angelidou, Sofia & Woodside, Arch G., 2023. "How historical and social aspirations reshape the relationship between corporate financial performance and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    14. Jiang, Guoliang Frank & Jung, Jae C. & Makino, Shige, 2020. "Parent Firm Corporate Social Responsibility and Overseas Subsidiary Performance: A Signaling Perspective," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(6).
    15. Min Zhang & Lijun Ma & Jun Su & Wen Zhang, 2014. "Do Suppliers Applaud Corporate Social Performance?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(4), pages 543-557, June.
    16. Saridakis, Charalampos & Angelidou, Sofia & Woodside, Arch G., 2020. "What type of CSR engagement suits my firm best? Evidence from an abductively-derived typology," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 174-187.
    17. Leon Zolotoy & Don O’Sullivan & Keke Song, 2021. "The Role of Ethical Standards in the Relationship Between Religious Social Norms and M&A Announcement Returns," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(4), pages 721-742, May.
    18. Hongjin Zhu & Yue Pan & Jiaping Qiu & Jinli Xiao, 2022. "Hometown Ties and Favoritism in Chinese Corporations: Evidence from CEO Dismissals and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(2), pages 283-310, March.
    19. Amrou Awaysheh & Randall A. Heron & Tod Perry & Jared I. Wilson, 2020. "On the relation between corporate social responsibility and financial performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(6), pages 965-987, June.
    20. Rafia Afrin & Ni Peng & Frances Bowen, 2022. "The Wealth Effect of Corporate Water Actions: How Past Corporate Responsibility and Irresponsibility Influence Stock Market Reactions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 180(1), pages 105-124, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:sbusec:v:59:y:2022:i:2:d:10.1007_s11187-021-00551-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.