IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i17p13156-d1230781.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Knowledge-Based Faultlines and Corporate Social Irresponsibility: Evidence from Chinese High-Polluting Companies

Author

Listed:
  • Jingchen Ma

    (School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 610074, China)

  • Xu Huang

    (School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu 610074, China)

Abstract

Government requests and societal expectations have pressured high-polluting companies to focus on corporate social responsibility strategies. Using the upper echelons theory as a theoretical framework, we investigated how top management team (TMT) faultlines influence corporate social performance (CSP) based on data from 212 high-polluting companies. The results showed that CSP can be improved by reducing corporate social irresponsibility (CSiR), knowledge-based faultlines have a U-shaped effect on CSiR, and there is a knowledge-based faultline critical point. This implies that knowledge-based faultlines can improve CSiR before reaching this critical point. Additionally, medium-strength knowledge-based faultlines are more conducive to improving irresponsible behavior. CEO power plays a significant moderating role in the relationship between TMT faultlines and CSiR and slows the U-shaped effect of knowledge-based faultlines on CSiR. These findings could help enterprises optimize team structures, adjust corporate social responsibility strategies, and maintain sustainable development in high-polluting sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Jingchen Ma & Xu Huang, 2023. "Knowledge-Based Faultlines and Corporate Social Irresponsibility: Evidence from Chinese High-Polluting Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-18, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:17:p:13156-:d:1230781
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/13156/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/13156/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. JoAnne Yong–Kwan Lim & Lowell W. Busenitz & Laku Chidambaram, 2013. "New Venture Teams and the Quality of Business Opportunities Identified: Faultlines between Subgroups of Founders and Investors," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(1), pages 47-67, January.
    2. Nathan J. Hiller & Donald C. Hambrick, 2005. "Conceptualizing executive hubris: the role of (hyper‐)core self‐evaluations in strategic decision‐making," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 297-319, April.
    3. A. Reuber & Eileen Fischer, 2010. "Organizations Behaving Badly: When Are Discreditable Actions Likely to Damage Organizational Reputation?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 39-50, April.
    4. William Shafer & Kyoko Fukukawa & Grace Lee, 2007. "Values and the Perceived Importance of Ethics and Social Responsibility: The U.S. versus China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 70(3), pages 265-284, February.
    5. Sherry M.B. Thatcher & Karen A. Jehn & Elaine Zanutto, 2003. "Cracks in Diversity Research: The Effects of Diversity Faultlines on Conflict and Performance," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 217-241, May.
    6. Marko Reimer & Sebastiaan Doorn & Mariano L. M. Heyden, 2018. "Unpacking Functional Experience Complementarities in Senior Leaders’ Influences on CSR Strategy: A CEO–Top Management Team Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 977-995, September.
    7. Jian Zhang & Dongmin Kong & Ji Wu, 2018. "Doing Good Business by Hiring Directors with Foreign Experience," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 859-876, December.
    8. Harry G. Barkema & Oleg Shvyrkov, 2007. "Does top management team diversity promote or hamper foreign expansion?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(7), pages 663-680, July.
    9. Ioanna Boulouta, 2013. "Hidden Connections: The Link Between Board Gender Diversity and Corporate Social Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(2), pages 185-197, March.
    10. Chen, Chung-Jen & Guo, Ruey-Shan & Hsiao, Yung-Chang & Chen, Kuo-Liang, 2018. "How business strategy in non-financial firms moderates the curvilinear effects of corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility on corporate financial performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 154-167.
    11. Katerina Bezrukova & Karen A. Jehn & Elaine L. Zanutto & Sherry M. B. Thatcher, 2009. "Do Workgroup Faultlines Help or Hurt? A Moderated Model of Faultlines, Team Identification, and Group Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(1), pages 35-50, February.
    12. Craig Pearce & Charles Manz, 2011. "Leadership Centrality and Corporate Social Ir-Responsibility (CSIR): The Potential Ameliorating Effects of Self and Shared Leadership on CSIR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(4), pages 563-579, September.
    13. Scheidler, Sabrina & Edinger-Schons, Laura Marie, 2020. "Partners in crime? The impact of consumers' culpability for corporate social irresponsibility on their boycott attitude," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 607-620.
    14. Leon Schjoedt & Erik Monsen & Allison Pearson & Tim Barnett & James J. Chrisman, 2013. "New Venture and Family Business Teams: Understanding Team Formation, Composition, Behaviors, and Performance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 37(1), pages 1-15, January.
    15. William Ocasio, 1997. "Towards An Attention‐Based View Of The Firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(S1), pages 187-206, July.
    16. Ruchunyi Fu & Yi Tang & Guoli Chen, 2020. "Chief sustainability officers and corporate social (Ir)responsibility," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 656-680, April.
    17. Catherine M. Daily & S. Trevis Certo & Dan R. Dalton, 2000. "International experience in the executive suite: the path to prosperity?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 515-523, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Ilya R. P. Cuypers & Charmi Patel & Gokhan Ertug & Jiatao Li & Youtha Cuypers, 2022. "Top management teams in international business research: A review and suggestions for future research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(3), pages 481-515, April.
    2. Vandebeek, Alana & Voordeckers, Wim & Lambrechts, Frank & Huybrechts, Jolien, 2016. "Board role performance and faultlines in family firms: The moderating role of formal board evaluation," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 249-259.
    3. María Iborra & Marta Riera, 2023. "Corporate social irresponsibility: What we know and what we need to know," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1421-1439, May.
    4. Veltrop, D.B. & Hermes, C.L.M. & Postma, T.J.B.M. & de Haan, J., 2012. "A tale of two factions," Research Report 12001-HRM&OB, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    5. repec:dgr:rugsom:12001-hrmob is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Xi Zhong & Liuyang Ren & Tiebo Song, 2022. "Beyond Market Strategies: How Multiple Decision-Maker Groups Jointly Influence Underperforming Firms’ Corporate Social (Ir)responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 481-499, June.
    7. Haan & Postma & Hermes & Veltrop, 2012. "A Tale of Two Factions: Exploring the Relationship between Factional Faultlines and Conflict Management in Pension Fund Boards," Research Report 12001-HRMOB, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    8. Kiefner, Valentin & Mohr, Alexander & Schumacher, Christian, 2022. "Female executives and multinationals’ support of the UN's sustainable development goals," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(3).
    9. Michaela Wrede & Tobias Dauth, 2020. "A temporal perspective on the relationship between top management team internationalization and firms' innovativeness," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(4), pages 542-561, June.
    10. Shuai Chen & Duanxu Wang & Yun Zhou & Ziguang Chen & Daoyou Wu, 2017. "When too little or too much hurts: Evidence for a curvilinear relationship between team faultlines and performance," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 931-950, December.
    11. Danielle Cooper & Pankaj C. Patel & Sherry M. B. Thatcher, 2014. "It Depends: Environmental Context and the Effects of Faultlines on Top Management Team Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 633-652, April.
    12. Elshandidy, Tamer & Bamber, Matthew & Omara, Hossam, 2024. "Across the faultlines: A multi-dimensional index to measure and assess board diversity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    13. Andrea Calabrò & Rosalia Santulli & Mariateresa Torchia & Carmen Gallucci, 2021. "Entrepreneurial Orientation and Family Firm Performance: The Moderating Role of TMT Identity-Based and Knowledge-Based Faultlines," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(4), pages 838-866, July.
    14. Sabina Nielsen, 2010. "Top Management Team Internationalization and Firm Performance," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 185-206, April.
    15. Yun Song & Hongqu He & Caiyu Yan, 2022. "Impacts of top management team fault‐line on firm's innovation—Financial slack over‐investment and underinvestment," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(8), pages 3348-3360, December.
    16. Zhang, Yameng & Sharma, Piyush & Xu, Yekun & Zhan, Wu, 2021. "Challenges in internationalization of R&D teams: Impact of foreign technocrats in top management teams on firm innovations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 728-741.
    17. Ruijie Jin & Xu Jiang & Helen Wei Hu, 2023. "Internal and external CSR in China: How do women independent directors matter?," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 169-204, March.
    18. Myung-Ho Chung & Yumi Ko & Jee-Young Kim, 2020. "Group power structure, inter-subgroup cross-dependency, and work group performance," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 297-323, March.
    19. Jialong Wang & Ran Cui, 2023. "Does CEO's foreign experience promote export performance? Evidence from China," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 37(3), pages 326-345, September.
    20. Hutzschenreuter, Thomas & Horstkotte, Julian, 2013. "Performance effects of international expansion processes: The moderating role of top management team experiences," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 259-277.
    21. Shan Xue & Yi Tang & Yuehua Xu & Chu-Ding Ling & Xiao-Yun Xie & Shenjiang Mo, 2024. "How boards’ factional faultlines affect corporate financial fraud," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 351-376, March.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:17:p:13156-:d:1230781. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.