进口竞争与社会责任:战略导向的调节效应

Import Competition and CSR:The Moderating Effect of Strategic Orientation

贸易自由化为本文尝试探讨中国企业承担社会责任的内在动机提供了研究契机。以进口竞争为外生冲击,利用2010-2021年中国上市公司为研究样本,本文试图探讨中国企业的社会责任动机更倾向于源于企业责任感的利他主义,还是倾向于以获取比较优势为目的的利己主义。研究结果表明,在控制企业与时间固定效应及相关控制变量之后,进口竞争与企业社会责任不存在显著关联。这一基本事实反映出中国企业整体更倾向于利他动机,并未将社会责任作为在进口竞争中获取比较优势的战略工具。进一步研究揭示,进口竞争与社会责任的关系受到战略导向的影响:进口竞争加剧,利润导向型企业不会显著增强社会责任活动以获取比较优势,表现出利他动机;与之不同,增长导向型企业会显著提高社会责任水平,表现出利己动机。本文有助于进一步正确认识中国企业的社会责任动机,同时也从社会绩效的独特视角丰富了有关进口竞争影响的文献研究。

Corporate social responsibility(CSR),as the obligation of corporate citizenship,is essentially a non-profit social welfare activity,in which enterprises take part of their profits to actively return to society.It aims to seek sustainable development with all stakeholders by solving economic and social problems.In recent years,under the efforts of government,Chinese enterprises have been paying more attention to CSR.However,a series of additional commercial benefits brought by the fulfillment of social respon sibility have led to the motivation of CSR becoming impure.So,are the motivation of CSR“altruistic”or“self-interested”,aiming at improving the welfare of the society or improving the competitive status of the corporate?Different from other studies,this paper explores question by using import competition triggered by trade liberalization as an exogenous shock.When enterprises face import competition,more foreign products will enter the market,affecting firms’sales and forcing them to lower prices.However,as compe-tition intensifies,firms will focus on product upgrading,increasing R&D investment and shaping differentiation,in order to“escaping”from competition.Therefore,the import competition triggered by trade liberalization provides a rare research context for studying CSR motivation.This is because when enterprises face import competition,they have to make corresponding measures to cope with the impact of foreign products,and increasing CSR investment is an important means to gain comparative advantage.Therefore,this paper empirically examined CSR motivation using Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2021 as research samples,by using the social responsibility score provided by Hexun.com to measure CSR and the import tariff data of final goods provided by WITS database to measure import competition.The results show that there is no significant correlation between import competition and CSR,which reflects that Chinese firms are more inclined to“altruistic”motivation and do not use CSR as a strategic tool to gain comparative advantage in import competition.Further,this paper reveals the impact of strategic orientation on CSR motivation:when facing import competition,profit-oriented firms do not significantly increase their CSR activities to gain comparative advantage,and exhibit“altruistic”motivation,but growth-oriented firms significantly increase CSR activities,and exhibit“self-interested”moti-vation.The heterogeneity analysis show that firms located in regions with strong Confucian culture choose to reduce CSR activities when facing import competition,which is consistent with“altruistic”motivation.The contribution focuses on the following three points:first,previous studies on the CSR motivation have more often considered internal factors,such as executive motivation and the political identity of the CEO.However,CSR belongs to the internal behavior of the company,so there is a serious endogeneity in exploring the CSR motivation from the internal perspective of the company.In con-trast,this paper takes trade liberalization as the research background and adopt import competition as an exogenous shock to explore the CSR motivation by observing firms’responses to import competition.This approach not only solves the endogeneity problem,but also allows for more accurate inferences about the CSR motivation from the perspective of“ex ante”decision-making rather than“ex post”effects.Second,this paper explains why there are inconsistencies in the conclusions of existing studies on the CSR motivation by using strategic orientation and traditional Chinese culture as breakthrough points.Specifically,under the influence of traditional Confucianism,CSR motivation in China tend to be“altruistic”,and profit-oriented firms focusing on long-term interests are less inclined to use CSR as a strategic tool.Third,this paper explores the social impact of import competition from micro level,which en-riches the theoretical knowledge about the effect of import competition.The study also helps the society to evaluate the CSR activities in China more comprehensively and objectively.