Essays on corporate social responsibility and strategic choices

• Main Author: LIEW, Yah Ling
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: Corporate social responsibility; stakeholders; perceived trustworthniess; strategic choices; performance; non-financial disclosure; rationality; Strategic Management Policy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/etd_coll/506; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/etd_coll/article/1504/viewcontent/GPSM_AY2018_PhD_Joann_Liew_Yah_Ling_R.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

CSR is receiving significant attention from both academics and businesses. However, CSR and economic goals are still perceived as conflicting. To address this gap, this dissertation put together three essays that to inform about the instrumental value of CSR and how CSR could be compatible with economic objectives. Chapter Two reveals CSR reporting has strategic value for firms by improving firms' relationships with stakeholders and facilitating the development of sustainable development capabilities. Firms are responsive to shareholders' and governments' demands for reporting. As society increasingly demands for CSR reporting, the overlooked issue of costs and benefits of reporting is costly and counterproductive to sustainable development goals. I propose a collaborative, parsimonious and fine-grained regulatory approach, focusing on issue saliency and issue-specific regulations to address the gap. Chapter Three explores the interplay between financial performance and CSR in business practices. Drawing on behavioral economics, it investigates how relational rationality, emphasizing stakeholder relationship preservation, and economic efficient rationality, prioritizing resource conservation, influence CSR strategizing. The paper highlights the need for CSR strategizing to facilitate resource access for profitability-related projects and complements overall firms’ strategy. The essay conceptualizes resource conservation and relationship preservation mechanisms, providing insights into how firms allocate resources to economic and social objectives. Chapter Four examines the contingencies of the CSR-performance relationship. Integrating trust research with signaling theory, this paper proposes that perceived trustworthiness influences the credibility of CSR signals. Specifically, this study examines how the propensity to trust and category-based trust moderate the association between CSR and firm performance. This paper address an overlooked gap that stakeholders may perceive firms' CSR differently across countries, therefore influencing the CSR-performance relationship and informing businesses to invest in trust-building strategies.