IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i7p3029-d1370434.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Bidirectional Relationship between Digital Transformation and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Legitimacy Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Guangyu Huang

    (Business School, Foshan University, 528000 Foshan, China)

  • Liqiong Shen

    (School of Business Administration, South China University of Technology, 510640 Guangzhou, China)

Abstract

The pursuit of efficiency or legitimacy is an important choice facing corporate sustainability, especially in uncertain environments. Digital transformation contributes to corporate efficiency, while fulfilling corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a non-market-based strategy for companies seeking legitimacy. However, sustainability research remains unclear about the link between digital transformation and CSR and the mechanisms behind it. To fill this research gap, we incorporate economic policy uncertainty (EPU) into our analytical framework and elucidate the theoretical mechanism of the simultaneous bidirectional relationship between digital transformation and CSR from the perspective of organizational legitimacy. We construct a simultaneous equation model and analyze a sample of 468 Chinese listed companies collected from 2011 to 2018 using the three-stage least squares method. Our findings reveal a mutually reinforcing bidirectional relationship between digital transformation and CSR. Furthermore, we discover that EPU weakens the facilitating influence of digital transformation on CSR but strengthens the positive impact of CSR on digital transformation. Our conclusions suggest that companies taking on more CSR in digital transformation contexts can help achieve the organic unity of efficiency and legitimacy for sustainable development, but uncertainty can undermine this positive interaction.

Suggested Citation

  • Guangyu Huang & Liqiong Shen, 2024. "The Bidirectional Relationship between Digital Transformation and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Legitimacy Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-21, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:7:p:3029-:d:1370434
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/3029/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/3029/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tianjiao Zhao & Xiang Xiao & Bingshi Zhang, 2021. "Economic policy uncertainty and corporate social responsibility performance: evidence from China," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(5), pages 1003-1026, January.
    2. Dongmin Kong & Boyang Liu, 2023. "Digital Technology and Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(9), pages 2967-2993, July.
    3. Guangyu Huang & Fei Ye & Yina Li & Lujie Chen & Minhao Zhang, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility and bank credit loans: Exploring the moderating effect of the institutional environment in China," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 707-742, June.
    4. Ye, Fei & Ouyang, You & Li, Yina, 2023. "Digital investment and environmental performance: The mediating roles of production efficiency and green innovation," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    5. Hailiang Zou & Ruijing Wang & Guoyou Qi, 2023. "The Response of CSR to Economic Policy Uncertainty: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-19, August.
    6. Toni M. Whited & Guojun Wu, 2006. "Financial Constraints Risk," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 531-559.
    7. Abubakr Saeed & Muhammad Saad Baloch & Hammad Riaz, 2022. "Global Insights on TMT Gender Diversity in Controversial Industries: A Legitimacy Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(3), pages 711-731, September.
    8. Yuan, Tiezhen & Wu, Ji (George) & Qin, Ni & Xu, Jian, 2022. "Being nice to stakeholders: The effect of economic policy uncertainty on corporate social responsibility," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    9. Jieqiong Wang & Xiao Zhang & Mingjie Dai, 2021. "Influences of Economic Policy Uncertainty on Corporate Social Responsibility Information Disclosure," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 23(58), pages 843-843, August.
    10. Shuili Du & Edward Vieira, 2012. "Striving for Legitimacy Through Corporate Social Responsibility: Insights from Oil Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(4), pages 413-427, November.
    11. van den Broek, Tijs & van Veenstra, Anne Fleur, 2018. "Governance of big data collaborations: How to balance regulatory compliance and disruptive innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 330-338.
    12. Melissa A. Schilling & Corey C. Phelps, 2007. "Interfirm Collaboration Networks: The Impact of Large-Scale Network Structure on Firm Innovation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(7), pages 1113-1126, July.
    13. Stefan Schaltegger & Jacob Hörisch, 2017. "In Search of the Dominant Rationale in Sustainability Management: Legitimacy- or Profit-Seeking?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 259-276, October.
    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. Cuiling Ou & Kegao Yan, 2024. "The Nonlinear Effect of Economic Policy Uncertainty on Corporate Social Responsibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-19, June.
    2. Gull, Ammar Ali & Ahsan, Tanveer & Qureshi, Muhammad Azeem & Mushtaq, Rizwan, 2023. "Striving to safeguard shareholders or maintain sustainability in periods of high uncertainty: A multi-country evidence," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    3. Cui, Xin & Wang, Chunfeng & Sensoy, Ahmet & Liao, Jing & Xie, Xiaochen, 2023. "Economic policy uncertainty and green innovation: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    4. Safiullah, Md & Kabir, Md. Nurul, 2024. "Corporate political risk and environmental performance," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    5. Peng, Daoju & Colak, Gonul & Shen, Jianfu, 2023. "Lean against the wind: The effect of policy uncertainty on a firm's corporate social responsibility strategy," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    6. Jing Wu & Chee Yoong Liew, 2024. "Revisiting the nexus between corporate social responsibility and corporate value: Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 2066-2085, May.
    7. Zhu, Minghao & Liang, Chen & Yeung, Andy C.L. & Zhou, Honggeng, 2024. "The impact of intelligent manufacturing on labor productivity: An empirical analysis of Chinese listed manufacturing companies," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    8. Liu, Duan & Yu, Nizhou & Wan, Hong, 2022. "Does water rights trading affect corporate investment? The role of resource allocation and risk mitigation channels," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    9. Yuan, Li & Rao, Siqi & Yang, Shenggang & Dai, Pengyi, 2023. "Does equity market openness increase productivity? the dual effects of Shanghai-Hong Kong stock Connect program in China," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    10. Girardone, Claudia & Kokas, Sotirios & Wood, Geoffrey, 2021. "Diversity and women in finance: Challenges and future perspectives," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    11. Avimanyu Datta, 2016. "Antecedents To Radical Innovations: A Longitudinal Look At Firms In The Information Technology Industry By Aggregation Of Patents," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(07), pages 1-31, October.
    12. Katsiaryna Bardos & Steven E. Kozlowski & Michael R. Puleo, 2021. "Entrenchment or efficiency? CEO‐to‐employee pay ratio and the cost of debt," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 511-533, August.
    13. Hirokazu Mizobata & Hiroshi Teruyama, 2020. "Factor Adjustments and Liquidity Management: Evidence from Japan's Two Lost Decades and Financial Crises," KIER Working Papers 1043, Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research.
    14. Guo, Shu & Zhang, ZhongXiang, 2023. "Green credit policy and total factor productivity: Evidence from Chinese listed companies," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    15. Fernández de Guevara, Juan & Maudos, Joaquín & Salvador, Carlos, 2021. "Effects of the degree of financial constraint and excessive indebtedness on firms’ investment decisions," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    16. Falavigna, Greta & Ippoliti, Roberto, 2023. "SMEs’ behavior under financial constraints: An empirical investigation on the legal environment and the substitution effect with tax arrears," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    17. P. Charnoz & C. Lelarge & C. Trevien, 2016. "Communication Costs and the Internal Organization of Multi-Plant Businesses: Evidence from the Impact of the French High-Speed Rail," Documents de Travail de l'Insee - INSEE Working Papers g2016-02, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques.
    18. Z. Jun Lin & Shengqiang Liu & Fangcheng Sun, 2017. "The Impact of Financing Constraints and Agency Costs on Corporate R&D Investment: Evidence from China," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 17(1), pages 3-42, March.
    19. Duk Hee Lee & Il Won Seo & Ho Chull Choe & Hee Dae Kim, 2012. "Collaboration network patterns and research performance: the case of Korean public research institutions," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 91(3), pages 925-942, June.
    20. Cortez, Maria Céu & Andrade, Nuno & Silva, Florinda, 2022. "The environmental and financial performance of green energy investments: European evidence," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).

    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:16:y:2024:i:7:p:3029-:d:1370434. 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.