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A growing number of studies propose that the performance outcomes of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR hereafter) are dependent upon how firms implement CSR. If firms are able to strategically implement CSR, their CSR engagement will not only improve stockholders' value, but will also contribute to corporate sustainability. However, research on strategic CSR is still incipient. This study aims to examine the determinants of strategic CSR. Taking firms that have published CSR reports for three consecutive years as research samples, this study finds that product market competition does not significantly affect the level of strategic CSR, while corporate reputation and customer awareness do both have significantly positive impacts on the level of strategic CSR. These results suggest that the motivation of a firm's engagement in strategic CSR is to respond to external stakeholders' implicit claims rather than to respond to the external competitive pressure.

This study builds on the transaction cost theory to examine the performance effects of interorganizational cooperation and develops an understanding of how different forms of cooperative relationships affect organizational performance within a major service sector, namely the healthcare industry. The authors study, in particular, two cooperative forms applied to hospitals: hospital-based health networks and health systems. An empirical investigation of 382 hospitals in Taiwan shows that interorganizational cooperation exerts positive effects on hospital performance. In addition, health systems have greater positive effects on hospital efficiency than health networks. Furthermore, this study finds that the positive impact of participation in health systems is especially significant for private hospitals, local community hospitals, and hospitals in highly competitive regions. The findings reveal that performance impacts of interorganizational cooperation are contingent on the cooperative arrangements in the healthcare industry.

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