Abstract
Some evidence suggests that R&D may enhance a firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR), whereas other studies show that R&D activities can shift resources away from CSR. To address this theoretical and empirical tension, we investigate the impacts of R&D on corporate social inconsistency (CSI), the within-firm variability of a firm’s effectiveness in addressing different environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices. Building on evolutionary economics, we propose that R&D is positively related to CSI because the complementarity between R&D and CSI can create important synergies between a firm’s market and nonmarket strategies. Drawing on institutional economics, we also hypothesize that market openness, associated with competitive selection pressures, positively moderates the relationship between R&D and CSI because high selection pressure reinforces the need for cost-effective synergies by bundling R&D and CSI. Our hypotheses are empirically supported using multilevel data of 873 firms from 30 countries between 2008 and 2012.
Original language | English |
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DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management 2017 - Atlanta, United States of America Duration: 4 Aug 2017 → 8 Aug 2017 Conference number: 77th |
Conference
Conference | Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management 2017 |
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Abbreviated title | AoM 2017 |
Country/Territory | United States of America |
City | Atlanta |
Period | 4/08/17 → 8/08/17 |