The Origin of Proactive Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility (ECSR) of Large Firms: Institutional Embeddedness—Driven, Family Involvement-Promoted, or Resource-Dependent?

• Published in: Sustainability Vol. 13; no. 3; p. 1197
• Main Authors: Hu, Shilei, Wang, Xiaohong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 24.01.2021
• Subjects: Comparative analysis; Configurations; Hypotheses; Politics; Qualitative analysis; Social responsibility; Society; Sustainability; Sustainable development; China
• ISSN: 2071-1050; 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su13031197

Why are some firms in China highly engaged in proactive environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR) while others are not? Knowledge of the determinants of proactive ECSR is a key research question among academics and practitioners. This study seeks to advance the ECSR literature by suggesting a configuration way of integrating institutional embeddedness, family involvement, and the resource base factors of firms to predict proactive ECSR investment, a proxy for proactive ECSR. Specifically, this study explores how the combination of institutional embeddedness, family involvement, and the resource base factors of firms jointly shape the proactive ECSR investment of large firms. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) on a sample of 162 large private firms in China, this study finds that no condition alone is sufficient to account for high proactive ECSR investment. Institutional embeddedness, family involvement, and the resource base factors of firms must interact with one another to produce highly proactive ECSR investments. There exist two distinctive configurations that provide a nuanced picture of the drivers of proactive ECSR investment. These findings provide meaningful insights for theory and practice and pave the way for future research in the domain of ECSR.