Corporate Citizenship: Creating Intangible Assets Across Institutional Environments

Abstract

We argue that citizenship programs are strategic investments comparable to R&D and advertising. They can create intangible assets that help companies overcome nationalistic barriers, facilitate globalization, and outcompete local rivals. Program content selection reflects a balance between legitimation and differentiation, and choices are influenced both by local institutional environments that shape expectations of corporate commitment to citizenship and by the degree of customization required because of institutional distance. Citizenship profiles therefore enable the sociocognitive integration that global companies require to operate effectively across diverse local markets.

Does Corporate Social Responsibility Put Reputation at Risk by Inviting Activist Targeting? An Empirical Test among European SMEs

“…Whereas earlier findings of Gardberg and Fombrun (2006), Melo and Garrido-Morgado (2012), and Lin et al (2016) showed that CSR improves reputation and that this reputational advantage motivates managers to pursue CSR (Brønn and Vidaver-Cohen, 2009;Babiak and Trendafilova, 2011), our results imply that if an SME starts CSR 9 Does CSR put reputation of SMEs at risk? activities, it creates more exposure to external criticism on its CSR.…”

The relationship between corporate social responsibility and shareholder value: an empirical test of the risk management hypothesis

“…CSR activity and shareholder value easily map onto observable variables, and we assert that a defensible link between CSR activity and goodwill has been established both theoretically (Gardberg and Fombrun, 2006;Godfrey, 2005) and empirically (Turban and Greening, 1997;Simon, 1995;Van Herpen et al, 2003;Williams and Barrett, 2000). The mens rea attribution process remains as an unobserved, and most likely unobservable, variable (Godfrey and Hill, 1995); unobservable because it is intrapsychic and may be a tacit or semiconscious process (Gladwell, 2005;Winter, 1987).…”

“…In particular, we investigate when participation in some types of CSR activities creates a form of goodwill or moral capital for the firm that acts as 'insurancelike' protection when negative events occur (Gardberg and Fombrun, 2006;Godfrey, 2005) that preserves shareholder value (CFP). Thus, this article investigates a different aspect of the CSR-CFP relationship; namely, that CSR activities can provide an insurance mechanism to preserve-rather than generate-CFP.…”

Do Entrepreneurial SMEs Perform Better Because They are More Responsible?

“…Tangible resources are linked to practical aspects, while intangible resources refer to immaterial resources and capacities, such as reputation and human capital (Halme and Korpela 2014). According to the RBV, these intangible assets are difficult to imitate or substitute (Barney 1991;Surroca et al 2010) and play a role in business' survival (Gardberg and Fombrun 2006).…”