股权性质与企业社会责任偏好:基于利益相关者视角的研究

Nature of Equity And Corporate Social Responsibility Preferences: A Stakeholder Perspective

基于利益相关者视角,对不同股权性质的企业是否存在社会责任偏好差异进行探究,同时探讨了股权性质影响企业社会责任偏好的边界条件。采用2009—2017年沪深两市A股上市公司面板数据集的研究结果表明,由于股权性质的差异,国有企业和民营企业在履行社会责任时均具有一定程度的偏好性:与民营企业相比,国有企业更偏好与内部利益相关者相关的社会责任;而民营企业更加关注外部利益相关者的社会责任诉求。此外,制度的健全性和行业的竞争性都会对企业的社会责任偏好产生影响:随着制度的不断发展,国有企业对内部社会责任的偏好受到了一定程度的抑制,而激烈的行业竞争则促进了民营企业对外部社会责任的偏好。

In recent years, corporate social responsibility behaviors are increasingly popular in China. Conducting corporate social responsibility has become an important strategic tool for firms to show their good image and win the favor of various stakeholders. However, there is still a debate on the heterogeneity of corporate social responsibility behaviors of firms with different equity structures in existing literature. The reason for this debate might be the fact that the existing studies generally analyze CSR as a whole, or investigate a single dimension of corporate social responsibility, e.g., the benefit of shareholders, the development of employees, charitable donations etc. Rather, they pay inadequate attention to the variety of corporate social responsibility and fail to identify that firms with different equity structures may prefer different types of corporate social responsibility. The variety of corporate social responsibility roots in the fact that this behavior is influenced by various stakeholders. Firms with limited resources perform specific dimensions of corporate social responsibility to satisfy particular stakeholders. Therefore, from the stakeholder perspective, differentiating internal corporate social responsibility from external corporate social responsibility may not only help to clarify different stakeholders appreciated by firms, but also contribute to deeply exploring the reason that different types of corporate social responsibility are valued by firms with different equity structures, i.e., state-owned enterprises and private enterprises. Especially in the background of the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics, state-owned enterprises are more likely to perform social responsibility than private enterprises in public stereotype. Thus, it is necessary to theoretically and empirically analyze the different preferences of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises in corporate social responsibility,respectively.Using the panel datasets of non-financial A-share listed firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen in 2009-2017, this study investigates whether firms with different equity structures have different preferences for conducting corporate social responsibility and under what conditions state-owned enterprises and private enterprises may alter their corporate social responsibility preferences. Results indicate that both state-owned enterprises and private enterprises do have certain preferences for conducting corporate social responsibility. Specifically, state-owned enterprises prefer those corporate social responsibility activities related to internal stakeholders, while private enterprises are more concerned with external stakeholder-related corporate social responsibility activities. Moreover, institutional development and industrial competition influence state-owned enterprises’ and private enterprises’ corporate social responsibility preferences. With the continuous development and improvement of the institutional system, the preferences of state-owned enterprises for corporate social responsibility actives related to internal stakeholders will be suppressed. Fierce competition in the industry will, to a certain extent, positively promote private enterprises’ preferences for corporate social responsibility activities related to external stakeholders.Our results provide policy suggestions for the government on institutional arrangements and market regulation. The government should acknowledge the fact that firms with different equity structures have their own strengths and weaknesses in doing social responsibility because each of them has a distinct social responsibility preference. Therefore, the government needs to take different steps to facilitate corporate social responsibility, for example, the government can adopt measures to encourage state-owned enterprises to perform more social responsibility activities related to external stakeholders, and promote private enterprises to do more social responsibility activities related to internal stakeholders. In doing so, it can complement the existing social responsibility practices of state-owned enterprises and private enterprises,and ultimately create an effective and healthy climate to perform sustainable corporate social responsibility. Meanwhile,the findings about the moderating effects from institutional development and industrial competition may not only help the government to formulate effective regional and industrial development plans, but also promote to realize coordinated development of economy and society in the light of the integration of corporate social responsibility activities and policies.