儒家文化与企业慈善捐赠

Confucian Culture and Corporate Philanthropy

综合运用历史典籍和A股上市公司2007—2016年数据,本文从非正式制度视角考察了儒家文化及其隐形价值规范对企业慈善捐赠行为的影响效应。研究结果表明,儒家文化倡导的"仁者爱人""先义后利"及"天下为公"等伦理价值对企业捐赠具有显著的促进作用。具体来讲,企业受到儒家文化的影响强度越大,其参与慈善捐赠的概率和捐赠支出均显著越高。进一步检验还揭示,相较于国有企业,儒家文化促进慈善捐赠的积极作用在民营企业表现更突出;同时,当企业面临的同行捐赠压力越小时,儒家文化促进慈善捐赠的积极效果越明显。此外,我们还发现,儒家文化对企业慈善捐赠的促进作用呈现持续性特征,且超越功利主义目的而呈现典型的"利他"主义色彩。本研究从文化视角拓展了对企业捐赠行为影响因素的理解,并提供了来自东方情境的经验证据,它也纠正了长期以来部分学者对儒家思想的消极认知偏见。

By using historical books and data of A-Share listed companies in China from 2007 to 2016,this paper examines the effect of Confucian culture and its implicit value norms on corporate philanthropy from the perspective of informal institution.The results show that Confucian culture has a significant promoting influence on corporate philanthropy.Specifically,the greater the influence of Confucian culture on enterprises,the greater the likelihood and extent of corporate giving.Further analysis indicates that comparing with state-owned enterprises,Confucian tradition has a more positive effect on corporate philanthropy in non-state-owned enterprises.Meanwhile,we also find a stronger relationship between Confucian culture and corporate philanthropy when enterprises encounter weaker pressure from peers’giving.Moreover,the promoting effect of Confucian culture on corporate philanthropy has a continuous character,and it presents a typical"altruism"color beyond the purpose of utilitarianism.This study combines macro-regional cultural characteristics with micro corporate decision,revealing the impact of Oriental Confucian tradition and its implicit value norms on corporate charitable donation behavior.Our study broadens the understanding of the determinant factors of corporate philanthropic donations,and enriches the literature on"culture and corporate decision-making"which has emerged in recent years.Furthermore,the existing research on Confucian ethical value is mainly based on the philosophical and sociological aspects,and most of them adopt the normative analysis paradigm.In contrast,this paper combines Confucian thought with empirical methods to test the positive role of Confucian ethics in promoting corporate philanthropy.It also expands the research paradigm of Confucian ethical value and deepens the theoretical understanding of the economic consequences of Confucian culture.In addition,General Secretary Xi has repeatedly stressed"cultural confidence",seeking solutions to practical problems from excellent traditional culture(especially Confucianism).Our findings also provide a necessary theoretical basis and policy reference for promoting and exerting the excellent traditional culture in guiding the unique role of corporate philanthropy.