IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v46y2022ipbs1544612321004438.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Foreign ownership and corporate philanthropy

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Aoran
  • Luo, Xian
  • Zeng, Ying
  • Zhang, Hao

Abstract

We explore the relationship between foreign ownership and corporate philanthropy using donation data from a sample of Chinese listed companies. We manually collect ownership data on foreign investors in these companies from 2003 to 2018. We further collect data on the foreign investors’ jurisdictions of origin and find that these investors come from 39 jurisdictions. We show that foreign ownership significantly increases corporate donations. Instrumental variable regressions confirm this finding. We conclude that foreign investors inject the values of social responsibility to investees and thus increase corporate philanthropy. Our results are robust to a battery of robustness tests.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Aoran & Luo, Xian & Zeng, Ying & Zhang, Hao, 2022. "Foreign ownership and corporate philanthropy," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 46(PB).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:46:y:2022:i:pb:s1544612321004438
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2021.102461
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612321004438
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2021.102461?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bae, Kee-Hong & Chan, Kalok & Ng, Angela, 2004. "Investibility and return volatility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 239-263, February.
    2. Chen, Tao & Dong, Hui & Lin, Chen, 2020. "Institutional shareholders and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 483-504.
    3. Hao Liang & Luc Renneboog, 2017. "On the Foundations of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(2), pages 853-910, April.
    4. Minghui Han & Yong Li & Ning Wang & Hao Zhang, 2020. "Cultural diversity in ownership and stock liquidity," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(21), pages 1772-1777, December.
    5. Christian Leuz & Karl V. Lins & Francis E. Warnock, 2010. "Do Foreigners Invest Less in Poorly Governed Firms?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(3), pages 3245-3285, March.
    6. Bena, Jan & Ferreira, Miguel A & Matos, Pedro & Pires, Pedro, 2017. "Are foreign investors locusts? The long-term effects of foreign institutional ownership," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 122-146.
    7. John, Kose & Knyazeva, Anzhela & Knyazeva, Diana, 2011. "Does geography matter? Firm location and corporate payout policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(3), pages 533-551, September.
    8. Kate Hogarth & Marion Hutchinson & Wendy Scaife, 2018. "Corporate Philanthropy, Reputation Risk Management and Shareholder Value: A Study of Australian Corporate giving," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 375-390, August.
    9. Kim, Hyun-Dong & Kim, Taeyeon & Kim, Yura & Park, Kwangwoo, 2019. "Do long-term institutional investors promote corporate social responsibility activities?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 256-269.
    10. Dyck, Alexander & Lins, Karl V. & Roth, Lukas & Wagner, Hannes F., 2019. "Do institutional investors drive corporate social responsibility? International evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(3), pages 693-714.
    11. Boubakri, Narjess & Guedhami, Omrane & Saffar, Walid, 2016. "Geographic location, foreign ownership, and cost of equity capital: Evidence from privatization," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 363-381.
    12. McGuinness, Paul B. & Vieito, João Paulo & Wang, Mingzhu, 2017. "The role of board gender and foreign ownership in the CSR performance of Chinese listed firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 75-99.
    13. Incheol Kim & Hong Wan & Bin Wang & Tina Yang, 2019. "Institutional Investors and Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance Policies: Evidence from Toxics Release Data," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(10), pages 4901-4926, October.
    14. Ugur Lel, 2019. "The role of foreign institutional investors in restraining earnings management activities across countries," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(6), pages 895-922, August.
    15. Boubakri, Narjess & El Ghoul, Sadok & Wang, He & Guedhami, Omrane & Kwok, Chuck C.Y., 2016. "Cross-listing and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 123-138.
    16. Jun‐Koo Kang & Jin‐Mo Kim, 2008. "The Geography of Block Acquisitions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2817-2858, December.
    17. Humphrey, Jacquelyn E. & Li, Yong, 2021. "Who goes green: Reducing mutual fund emissions and its consequences," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    18. Deng, Baijun & Li, Zhongfei & Li, Yong, 2018. "Foreign institutional ownership and liquidity commonality around the world," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 20-49.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Qu, Shawn, 2024. "Litigation risk and corporate philanthropy: A managerial perspective analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).
    2. Jyun‐Ying Fu, 2023. "Customer concentration and corporate charitable donations: Evidence from China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(1), pages 545-561, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lifang Chen & Minghui Han & Yong Li & William L. Megginson & Hao Zhang, 2022. "Foreign ownership and corporate excess perks," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(1), pages 72-93, February.
    2. Haozhe Han, 2023. "Does increasing the QFII quota promote Chinese institutional investors to drive ESG?," Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(6), pages 1627-1643, November.
    3. Yahia, Nadia Ben & Chalwati, Amna & Hmaied, Dorra & Khizer, Abdul Mohi & Trabelsi, Samir, 2023. "Do foreign institutions avoid investing in poorly CSR-performing firms?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    4. Liu, Hao & Ye, Xiaofen & Zhang, Qun, 2024. "Foreign ownership and M&A activity: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    5. Gillan, Stuart L. & Koch, Andrew & Starks, Laura T., 2021. "Firms and social responsibility: A review of ESG and CSR research in corporate finance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. Li, Yong & Han, Minghui & Faff, Robert & Zhang, Hao, 2022. "Foreign ownership and stock liquidity uncertainty," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    7. Zhe Li & Ping Wang & Tianlong Wu, 2021. "Do foreign institutional investors drive corporate social responsibility? Evidence from listed firms in China," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1-2), pages 338-373, January.
    8. Zhu, Minghao & Yeung, Andy C.L. & Zhou, Honggeng, 2021. "Diversify or concentrate: The impact of customer concentration on corporate social responsibility," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    9. Xu Cheng & Xiandeng Jiang & Dongmin Kong & Samuel Vigne, 2024. "Shifting Stakeholders Logics: Foreign Institutional Ownership and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 165-183, September.
    10. Wang, Ye & Liu, Xufeng & Wan, Die, 2023. "Stock market openness and ESG performance: Evidence from Shanghai-Hong Kong connect program," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1306-1319.
    11. Simon Döring & Wolfgang Drobetz & Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Henning Schröder, 2023. "Foreign Institutional Investors, Legal Origin, and Corporate Greenhouse Gas Emissions Disclosure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 903-932, February.
    12. Liang, Quanxi & Gao, Wenlian & Xie, Hongji, 2022. "Do foreign investors deter corporate fraud? Evidence from China," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 92-111.
    13. Marshall, Andrew & Rao, Sandeep & Roy, Partha P. & Thapa, Chandra, 2022. "Mandatory corporate social responsibility and foreign institutional investor preferences," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    14. Cui, Di & Ding, Mingfa & He, Zhongda & Shen, Mi, 2022. "Restricted shares and CSR: Evidence from foreign strategic investors in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    15. Liu, Xianda & Hou, Wenxuan & Main, Brian G.M., 2022. "Anti-market sentiment and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from anti-Jewish pogroms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    16. Patrick Velte, 2023. "Which institutional investors drive corporate sustainability? A systematic literature review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 42-71, January.
    17. Chengcheng Li & Xiaoqiong Wang & Feifei Zhu, 2024. "Does share pledging impair stakeholder welfare? Evidence based on corporate social responsibility," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 63(4), pages 1155-1192, November.
    18. Xu, Jia & Zeng, Shu & Qi, Shaozhou & Cui, Jingbo, 2023. "Do institutional investors facilitate corporate environmental innovation?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    19. Lou, Pingyi & Wu, Chenyu, 2024. "Environmental effects of foreign indirect investment: The information channel," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    20. Zhe Li & Ping Wang, 2023. "Cross‐border mergers and acquisitions and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1-2), pages 335-376, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Corporate philanthropy; Foreign investor; Social responsibility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:46:y:2022:i:pb:s1544612321004438. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.