A Cross-National Framework to Explain the Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Contracting

11.12.2025 12:00 – 13:00

MANAGEMENT BROWN BAG SEMINAR

ABSTRACT

Despite growing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) contracting in executive compensation to, research on its effectiveness as a tool to improve corporate social performance (CSP) across countries remains inconclusive. To address this gap, we explore how home-country institutions influence the effectiveness of CSR contracting across a wide range of developed and emerging countries. Drawing on stakeholder agency and institutional theories, we argue that CSR contracting improves CSP by increasing stakeholder power and salience, but its effectiveness depends on whether the firm’s home-country institutions are pro-shareholder and pro-stakeholder. Using a sample of 4,455 public firms in 29 countries from 2006 to 2020, we find that CSR contracting is less effective in highly pro-shareholder environments, which deprioritize stakeholders who value CSP, and in highly pro-stakeholder environments, where institutionalized CSR expectations substitute for CSR contracting. Thus, CSR contracting is most effective in weaker institutional contexts that neither fully prioritize shareholders nor stakeholders. Our findings highlight the socially embedded nature of agency relationships and show that strong national institutions, rather than universal contracting logic, shape the effectiveness of CSR contracting.

Lieu

Bâtiment: Uni Mail

Boulevard du Pont-d'Arve 40
1205 Geneva

Room M 3250, 3rd floor

entrée libre