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What drives corporate social performance? The role of nation-level institutions

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  • Ioannis Ioannou

    (London Business School)

  • George Serafeim

    (Harvard Business School)

Abstract

In our Decade Award-winning article from 2012, we theorized and provided evidence consistent with nation-level institutions having a significant impact on corporate social performance (CSP) variation across companies. By establishing a link between the macro (i.e., country level) and micro (i.e., firm level) levels of analysis and by synthesizing across multiple disciplines including institutional economics, political science, cultural research, and institutional theory, we were able to demonstrate that differences across countries in terms of the political system, the education and labor system, the financial system and the cultural system significantly impacted variation in CSP across companies. In this Retrospective, we briefly discuss our original findings and elaborate on future research directions. Given the weak evidence regarding the impact of the financial system in our original study, we specifically focus on discussing recent developments in the financial system and their implications for research. We suggest additional research opportunities inspired by recent articles by scholars of international business that have extended our original article in important ways.

Suggested Citation

  • Ioannis Ioannou & George Serafeim, 2023. "What drives corporate social performance? The role of nation-level institutions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(1), pages 14-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jintbs:v:54:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41267-022-00579-7
    DOI: 10.1057/s41267-022-00579-7
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Cheng Li & Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra, 2024. "How subsidiary and supplier misbehavior lead to corporate social responsibility performance improvements in multinationals," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 55(4), pages 470-491, June.
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