Analysis of the Motivation behind Corporate Social Responsibility Based on the csQCA Approach

Abstract

Contemporary society is paying increasing attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR), the motivation for enterprises to perform social responsibility, and ways to encourage enterprises to actively take action towards social responsibility have become a focus among scholars. Following previous studies, this paper systematically summarises the motivation behind CSR in four aspects: (1) senior management and environmental impact; (2) the enterprise level; (3) external influences on the enterprise; and (4) ideological and political construction. This paper adopts a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) method to examine these four aspects, including specific variables of “Chinese Communist Party member on the board”, “women on the senior management team”, “CSR vision of the enterprise”, “overseas background among leaders”, and “enterprise profitable in the current year”. This paper finds that: (1) As a necessary condition, “enterprise profitable in the current year” plays a decisive role in the fulfilment of social responsibility. (2) The existence of women on the senior management team plays a vital role in CSR. (3) “Chinese Communist Party member on the board”, “CSR vision of the enterprise”, and “overseas background among leaders” complement each other.