【作者】 尹珏林；

【导师】 张玉利；

【作者基本信息】 南开大学 ， 企业管理， 2010， 博士

【摘要】 随着经济全球化进程的加速和中国社会转型的加剧,经济发展和社会发展不平衡的矛盾日益突出,企业盈利和社会福利之间的冲突日渐凸显,企业社会责任问题引起了广泛的关注。如何有效促进企业负责任的商业行为成为学术界关注的焦点之一。基于“有的企业积极主动承担社会责任,有的企业却千万百计逃避社会责任”的社会现象,本研究以新制度理论和资源基础论为理论视角,深入探讨了“企业为什么承担社会责任”这个核心问题,揭示了合法性机制和效率机制对于企业社会责任的作用机制。本文利用173份有效问卷,采用因子分析、层次回归分析和调节回归分析等方法,对相关假设进行了实证检验。通过对理论假设的实证检验,本研究主要发现和结论有以下四点。第一,企业参与社会活动并非只是出于利益考虑,而是将社会责任视为与利益相关者建立关系、获取合法性的一种手段。当企业社会责任植根于社会价值观体系时,这种内在的信仰和规范构成了新实践扩散的稳定基础。同时,政府在制度建设方面的努力,直接决定了企业是否会以负责任的方式处理与主要利益相关者如股东、消费者和员工的关系,但这种强制作用力对企业与次级利益相关者如社区、自然环境的关系作用并不明显。同行企业的表现对于中国企业的社会责任行为并没有显著的直接影响。在市场体系尚不健全,市场进入机制和竞争秩序不规范,信息成本较高的转型中国环境下,企业的不良竞争行为一般并不直接影响其运营绩效。也就是说,在既缺乏“示范效应”又缺失“惩戒效应”的商业环境中,同行压力不足以对企业的社会责任行为产生明显的直接激励作用。第二,组织内部资源构成了企业社会表现的基础和后盾。高层领导者个人的价值观和承诺是推动企业履行社会责任的根本动力,社会责任决策由“高管说了算”的现象在中国企业中普遍存在。另外,组织累积的经验传统,以及组织内部冗余资源对于企业社会责任发挥了显著影响,但这种影响对不同维度社会责任的作用方向和强度并不稳定和一致。国际经验对企业社会责任的正向影响仅仅局限在市场责任方面,与员工责任和公共责任之间反而呈现负相关关系,说明对国外市场依赖程度越大的企业,在全球化带来的巨大竞争压力之下,可能首先通过牺牲员工权益、削减社会开支来实现最大化利润、最小化成本的目的。先前绩效对企业社会责任的提升作用仅体现在市场责任上,说明资金和物质条件与公共责任和员工责任之间并没有显著关系,企业对非市场利益相关者的责任更多取决于其他因素,如企业领导人价值观、法律法规健全程度。第三,在中国转型经济情境下,效率机制相对合法性机制而言,对企业社会责任的影响占据主导地位。企业决策者、特定经验传统和冗余资源作为企业内部的重要资源基础,很大程度上影响了企业进行社会责任决策的范围。对中国企业而言,尽管它们面临日益严格的制度约束和更高的社会期望,但更为直接和巨大的压力仍然来源于竞争环境,企业更需要为股东回报和收益直接负责。在制度力量和市场力量之间,我们看到力量的天平似乎更倾向于效率的考虑。第四,企业社会责任行为是合法化机制和效率机制共同作用的结果,政府倡导和组织间模仿是影响企业社会责任实践扩散的主要作用力。转型经济体中政府对于创造健康的、道德的商业环境发挥了一定的积极作用,制度基础设施为企业的社会责任投入提供了“安全网”。组织间模仿对效率机制起到负向调节作用,在负责任行为得不到奖励、不负责任行为反而占便宜的商业环境中,同行之间的相互参照间接推动了行业的低水平发展,扭曲了企业之间在质量、技术、管理、服务基础上开展公平竞争的本质。相比之下,高管伦理承诺与社会规范环境压力对于推动企业承担社会责任的影响作用较为稳健。本研究的创新点和理论价值主要体现在两个方面。第一,聚焦企业社会责任行为的前端,针对企业社会责任的动因及其作用机制提供了更为完善的理论解释。鉴于以往研究大多视企业社会责任为既定条件,考察其绩效意义和其他效应,本文将企业社会责任作为因变量,从理论和实证角度补充了对企业社会责任前置因素的探索,重新审视了在全球经济社会迅速变迁环境下,越来越多企业采纳负责任行为的组织变革现象。第二,将制度理论引入企业社会责任研究情境,实证验证了制度环境压力的重要作用,不仅拓宽了制度理论的适用边界,而且丰富了合法性作用机制的研究成果。基于中国情境下的经验数据结果显示,当负责任的商业行为与社会规范、价值观一致时,这种内在的驱动力构成了社会责任实践扩散的稳定基础。认知合法性机制本身并不会直接作用于企业行为,它的作用还取决于企业资源,是通过与企业自身资源的交互作用来影响企业社会责任行为。相比之下,政府一方面可以通过加强股东利益保护、产品质量立法,直接督促企业履行市场责任；另一方面,当政府提高政策透明度和执法有效性时,企业利用自身资源和能力、将社会事务纳入战略考虑的动力就越大。本论文共分为六章,结构安排如下。第一章绪论部分阐述了研究背景、研究问题以及研究意义,介绍了研究内容和研究方法,并且从总体上概括了论文研究过程和框架结构。第二章文献综述部分对与本研究相关的理论成果进行系统地梳理和评述,概括出本研究的理论基础,包括企业社会责任理论、组织社会学的制度理论和战略管理的资源基础理论。第三章依据文献推演和理论推导,从理论层面上分析了影响企业社会责任的合法性机制和效率机制,进一步对变量之间的关系进行深入的理论探讨,从而提出了本文的研究模型和理论假设。第四章介绍了研究设计和研究流程,变量操作化定义与测量工具开发,探测性调研过程和结果,以及本研究运用的统计方法。第五章是实证分析部分,在介绍了数据来源和样本特征的基础上,对制度要素、资源要素和企业社会责任之间作用关系的相关假设进行了实证检验,并对验证结果进行分析和讨论。第六章对本研究的主要结论和关键发现进行概括,指出本研究主要创新点,明确本研究的理论贡献及对企业实践和政策制定的启示,最后指出本研究存在的局限性和未来研究方向。更多还原

【Abstract】 Concerns over corporate social responsibility (CSR) have grown significantly during the last two decades. Not only has the issue become a hot topic in the business press and among business and political leaders, but a body of academic literature has also emerged around the CSR issue. Most of the theoretically oriented research on the subject focused on exploring the relationship between corporate social responsibility and corporate financial performance, while few did the other way around. Understanding why firms commit to socially responsible behavior has been a key issue that is not yet sufficiently addressed in the CSR field. As a result, this study aims to fill the void and investigate the conditions under which firms are more likely to engage in CSR.Combining the neoinstitutional and resource-based theoretical perspectives, we propose an integrative framework for explaining the antecedents of CSR. The empirical study is based on an original survey study of executive managers from 173 Chinese firms. Findings from the study provide the evidence that CSR is not only a competitive process but also a complex institution-based process, which is highly embedded in the firm’s internal and external environment. Among the resource-related determinants, top management commitment to ethics plays an essential role in propelling firms to undertake various types of CSR. Among the institutional determinants, social normative pressure and regulatory stringency have strong positive influences on firms’ level of CSR participation. We further compare the relative predictive power of competitive mechanism and institutional isomorphic mechanism, and find greater contribution of the former, supporting an economic or strategic perspective on organizational social involvements in China. What’s more, peer pressure does not necessarily lead to socially responsible behavior, as its impacts are contingent on the resource characteristics of firms.These results have important implications for CSR research as well as for broader organizational and strategy studies. For research on the business and society, this study indicates that both competitive and institutional mechanisms influence corporate social responsibility. In particular, TMT commitment to ethics among the resource factors, and normative isomorphism among the institutional mechanisms, are conducive to responsible practices by businesses in the emerging countries. While prior studies have adopted either explanation, our research joins Oliver (1997) and Bansal (2005)’s call for integrating complementary perspectives in various organizational studies, and demonstrates the usefulness of combining resource-based theory and institutional theoretical perspectives in explaining CSR phenomena.Our empirical results suggest that the dichotomy between task and institutional environments, though useful, may deflect attention from multiple organizational motives in establishing and maintaining relationship with the environment, such as social responsibility activities. More research is expected in organizational contexts where competitive and institutional pressures coexist in shaping organizational behavior and success, where the relative influences of and potential conflicts between these pressures can be fully explored.The structure of this study is as follows. Chapter One introduces the research context from which the research question is proposed, expounds the content and methods of this study, and presents the research process and overall structure. Chapter Two makes a literature review of CSR studies, institutional theory and resource-based theory, laying the theoretical foundations of this study. Chapter Three introduces theoretical model development and hypothesis proposition. Chapter Four presents the research design and methodology, which includes questionnaire development, exploratory study and preliminary analysis. Chapter Five presents and discusses the empirical findings and analyses. Lastly, Chapter Six summarizes the conclusions and theoretical contributions derived from this study, points out its limitation as well as suggests future research directions.更多还原