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Unpacking the Drivers of Corporate Social Performance: A Multilevel, Multistakeholder, and Multimethod Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Marc Orlitzky
  • Céline Louche

    (Audencia Business School)

  • Jean-Pascal Gond
  • Wendy Chapple

Abstract

The question of what drives corporate social performance (CSP) has become a vital concern for many managers and researchers of large corporations. This study addresses this question by adopting a multilevel, multistakeholder, and multimethod approach to theorize and estimate the relative influence of macro (national business system and country), meso (industry), and micro (firm-level) factors on CSP. Applying three different methods of variance decomposition analysis to an international sample of 2060 large public companies over a time span of 5 years, our results show that firm-level factors explain the largest proportion of variance in aggregate CSP as well as CSP oriented toward communities, the natural environment, and employees. These results support our hypotheses according to which CSP is not primarily driven by macrolevel or mesolevel factors, except for shareholder-oriented CSP, which is relatively more influenced by country-level factors. As a whole, our findings also point to the value of subdividing CSP into its stakeholder-specific components as this disaggregation allows for a more careful examination of distinct drivers of distinct aspects of CSP.

Suggested Citation

  • Marc Orlitzky & Céline Louche & Jean-Pascal Gond & Wendy Chapple, 2017. "Unpacking the Drivers of Corporate Social Performance: A Multilevel, Multistakeholder, and Multimethod Analysis," Post-Print hal-01576890, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-01576890
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2822-y
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    Cited by:

    1. Kabir, Rezaul & Thai, Hanh Minh, 2021. "Key factors determining corporate social responsibility practices of Vietnamese firms and the joint effects of foreign ownership," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    2. Yu Li & Panpan Feng & Tiange Qi & Jiale Yan & Yongjian Huang, 2024. "Enterprise digital transformation, managerial myopia and cost stickiness," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Malik, Mahfuja & Al Mamun, Md, 2024. "Impact of target firm’s social performance on acquisition premiums," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(2).
    4. La Rosa, Fabio & Bernini, Francesca & Terzani, Simone, 2022. "Does corporate and country corruption risk affect CEO performance? A study of the best-performing CEOs worldwide," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 234-246.
    5. Silvia Cantele & Chiara Leardini & Luca Piubello Orsini, 2023. "Impactful B Corps: A configurational approach of organizational factors leading to high sustainability performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1104-1120, May.
    6. Chun Jiang & Qiang Fu, 2019. "A Win-Win Outcome between Corporate Environmental Performance and Corporate Value: From the Perspective of Stakeholders," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-18, February.
    7. Daewoung Choi & Hyunju Shin & Kyoungmi Kim, 2023. "CEO’s Childhood Experience of Natural Disaster and CSR Activities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 188(2), pages 281-306, November.
    8. Ludovic Cassely & Christophe Revelli & Sami Ben Larbi & Alain Lacroux, 2020. "Sustainable development drivers of companies: An international and multilevel analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2028-2043, September.
    9. Yang Liu & Weiqi Dai & Mingqing Liao & Jiang Wei, 2021. "Social Status and Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Chinese Privately Owned Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(4), pages 651-672, April.
    10. Mai Dong Tran & Samuel Adomako, 2021. "How CEO social capital drives corporate social performance: The roles of stakeholders, and CEO tenure," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 819-830, March.
    11. Anthony Goerzen & Michael Sartor & Kristin Brandl & Stacey Fitzsimmons, 2023. "Widening the lens: Multilevel drivers of firm corporate social performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(1), pages 42-60, February.
    12. Belas, Jaroslav & Škare, Marinko & Gavurova, Beata & Dvorsky, Jan & Kotaskova, Anna, 2022. "The impact of ethical and CSR factors on engineers’ attitudes towards SMEs sustainability," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 589-598.
    13. Francisco Javier Forcadell & Antonio Lorena & Elisa Aracil, 2023. "The firm under the spotlight: How stakeholder scrutiny shapes corporate social responsibility and its influence on performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1258-1272, May.
    14. Van Thac Dang & Ninh Nguyen & Xiangzhi Bu & Jianming Wang, 2019. "The Relationship between Corporate Environmental Responsibility and Firm Performance: A Moderated Mediation Model of Strategic Similarity and Organization Slack," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-14, June.
    15. Habtie Alemnew Belay & Fentaye Kasaa Hailu & Gedif Tessema Sinshaw, 2024. "Linking employees' work orientation and corporate social responsibility practices: Multilevel and multistakeholder cross‐sectional study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 676-696, January.
    16. Alberto Ruozzi & Jose Antonio Vicente, 2021. "Entrepreneurial Framework Conditions and Impact Scores of Small-Size Certified Benefit Corporations (CBCs). A Configurational Analysis of 17 Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-17, June.
    17. Pankaj C. Patel & C. S. Richard Chan, 2022. "Non-economic Performance of Benefit Corporations: A Variance Decomposition Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 355-376, June.
    18. Jennifer J. Griffin & Yoo Na Youm, 2018. "Voluntarily Disclosing Prosocial Behaviors in Korean Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1017-1030, December.
    19. Ehsan Poursoleyman & Amin Pourrezaei Nav & Gholamreza Mansourfar & Hamzeh Didar, 2025. "How Does Corporate Information Environment Influence CSR?," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, July.
    20. Yawen Gao & Jibao Gu & Hefu Liu, 2019. "Interactive effects of various institutional pressures on corporate environmental responsibility: Institutional theory and multilevel analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 724-736, July.
    21. Daniel Alonso‐Martínez & Valentina De Marchi & Eleonora Di Maria, 2020. "Which country characteristics support corporate social performance?," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 670-684, July.
    22. Fu, Limin & Boehe, Dirk & Orlitzky, Marc, 2020. "Are R&D-Intensive firms also corporate social responsibility specialists? A multicountry study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(8).
    23. Andrew Bryant & Jennifer J. Griffin & Vanessa G. Perry, 2020. "Mitigating climate change: A role for regulations and risk‐taking," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 605-618, February.

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