【公开学术报告】Giving Green an Office: Whether and When Appointing a Chief Sustainability Officer Affects Corporate Social (Ir) responsibility

Topic: Giving Green an Office: Whether and When Appointing a Chief Sustainability Officer Affects Corporate Social (Ir) responsibility

Date & Time: 10:00-11:30 am, Mon. 29^th, October 2018

Venue: Room 2101, Tongji Building A

Language: English

Speaker：Dr. FU Ruchunyi (City University of Hong Kong)

ABSTRACT

This study analyses the asymmetric consequences on a firm’s social performance via having a chief sustainability officer (CSO) in the top management team (TMT). We theorize that a CSO works as an attention carrier within a firm and helps channel firm attention to a firm’s social domain, consequently increasing the firm’s socially responsible activities (CSR) and reducing its socially irresponsible activities (CSiR). Given the difference between CSR and CSiR, the reduction of CSiR is greater than the increase of CSR. We further explore the moderating effect of those conditions that may invite more attention to corporate social performance and strengthen such an asymmetric effect of attention allocation. The hypotheses are generally supported by a sample of S&P 500 firms for 2005-2014. Implications to strategic research and the corporate social performance literature are discussed.

Key words: Chief sustainability officer, Corporate social (ir) responsibility, Top management team, Upper echelons theory, Attention-based view.