Stakeholder Pressure, Organizational Size, and the Allocation of Departmental Responsibility for the Management of Corporate Charitable Giving

• Published in: Business & society Vol. 43; no. 3; pp. 268 - 295
• Main Authors: Brammer, Stephen, Millington, Andrew
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2004; SAGE; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Competitive advantage; Costs; Delegation of authority; Dependency theory; Donations; Economic sociology; General studies. Economic systems; Hierarchies; Hypotheses; Public relations; Regression analysis; Shareholder relations; Size of enterprise; Social responsibility; Sociology; Sociology of economy and development; Stakeholder management; Stakeholders; Studies; United Kingdom > UK; corporate philanthropy; corporate social responsibility; organizational structure; stakeholder management; corporate social performance; charitable contributions; Enterprise; Gift; Organizational structure; Charity; Responsability
• ISSN: 0007-6503; 1552-4205
• DOI: 10.1177/0007650304267536

Based on new survey evidence, this article analyzes the allocation of departmental responsibility for the management of corporate charitable giving within a sample of large U.K. companies. Several qualitatively different forms of management are identified, and a model of the determinants of the choice among these forms is estimated. The findings indicate that the allocation of internal responsibility for the management of corporate giving is significantly influenced by the extent and type of managerially perceived stakeholder pressures, organizational size, and industry characteristics. The evidence indicates that, given the firm is sufficiently large to delegate the management of its charitable contributions, the choice over the location of control is largely a function of the nature of the prevailing forms of stakeholder pressure experienced by the organization.