IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v31y2023i4p2548-2564.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From shareholder to stakeholder engagement: How regular and irregular corporate social responsibility affects CEO compensation

Author

Listed:
  • Talat Mehmood Khan
  • Naiping Zhu
  • Jin Yan
  • Hazrat Hassan

Abstract

The present study aims to uncover the role of regular and irregular CSR in CEO compensation contracts. Taking sample of non‐financial Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2020, this study employed a panel data regression model. According to traditional agency theory, CSR can increase shareholder wealth. This theory is not supported by the actual findings of the study, which indicate a negative relationship between CSR and CEO compensation. In further analysis, we disintegrate CSR and finds that regular CSR is positively associated with CEO compensation, showing that CEOs are compensated for maintaining an optimal level of CSR. In contrast, irregular CSR has a negative relationship with CEO compensation, indicating that when CSR investments deviate from their optimal level, they may have a negative impact on shareholders wealth by transferring wealth from shareholder to stakeholder; resulting in a decrease in CEO compensation. We conclude by establishing an inverted U‐shaped relationship between CEO compensation and CSR. The present study's conclusions are supportive and provide vital insights for future research and business operations. Moreover, policymakers can utilize our findings while negotiating CEO compensation contracts.

Suggested Citation

  • Talat Mehmood Khan & Naiping Zhu & Jin Yan & Hazrat Hassan, 2023. "From shareholder to stakeholder engagement: How regular and irregular corporate social responsibility affects CEO compensation," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(4), pages 2548-2564, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:31:y:2023:i:4:p:2548-2564
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.2531
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2531
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.2531?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ittner, Christopher D. & Larcker, David F., 2001. "Assessing empirical research in managerial accounting: a value-based management perspective," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 349-410, December.
    2. Cheng Hsiao, 2007. "Panel data analysis—advantages and challenges," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 16(1), pages 1-22, May.
    3. Timothy D. Hubbard & Dane M. Christensen & Scott D. Graffin, 2017. "Higher Highs and Lower Lows: The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in CEO Dismissal," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(11), pages 2255-2265, November.
    4. Giovanni Cespa & Giacinta Cestone, 2007. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Managerial Entrenchment," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(3), pages 741-771, September.
    5. Salaheldin Hamad & Fong‐Woon Lai & Muhammad Kashif Shad & Zdeňka Konečná & Feybi Ariani Goni & Abdoulmohammad Gholamzadeh Chofreh & Jiří Jaromír Klemeš, 2022. "Corporate governance code and voluntary disclosure of integrated reporting: Evidence from an emerging economy," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1497-1510, December.
    6. María Consuelo Pucheta‐Martínez & Inmaculada Bel‐Oms & Mehdi Nekhili, 2019. "The contribution of financial entities to the sustainable development through the reporting of corporate social responsibility information," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 388-400, May.
    7. Demsetz, Harold & Lehn, Kenneth, 1985. "The Structure of Corporate Ownership: Causes and Consequences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(6), pages 1155-1177, December.
    8. Larcker, David F., 2003. "Discussion of "are executive stock options associated with future earnings?"," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1-3), pages 91-103, December.
    9. Suwongrat Papangkorn & Pattanaporn Chatjuthamard & Sirimon Treepongkaruna, 2022. "Sustainable development and firm performance: Evidence from Thailand's sufficiency economy philosophy," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 1030-1043, October.
    10. Steven M. Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1988. "Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 141-206.
    11. Baron, David P., 2008. "Managerial contracting and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1-2), pages 268-288, February.
    12. Rekker, Saphira A.C. & Benson, Karen L. & Faff, Robert W., 2014. "Corporate social responsibility and CEO compensation revisited: Do disaggregation, market stress, gender matter?," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 84-103.
    13. Christopher Marquis & Cuili Qian, 2014. "Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in China: Symbol or Substance?," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(1), pages 127-148, February.
    14. Amir Barnea & Amir Rubin, 2010. "Corporate Social Responsibility as a Conflict Between Shareholders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 71-86, November.
    15. Ronald W. Masulis & Syed Walid Reza, 2015. "Agency Problems of Corporate Philanthropy," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(2), pages 592-636.
    16. Bryan Hong & Zhichuan Li & Dylan Minor, 2016. "Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation for Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 199-213, June.
    17. Bengt Holmstrom & Joan Ricart i Costa, 1986. "Managerial Incentives and Capital Management," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(4), pages 835-860.
    18. Navarro, Peter, 1988. "Why Do Corporations Give to Charity?," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 61(1), pages 65-93, January.
    19. Ágnes Zsóka & Éva Vajkai, 2018. "Corporate sustainability reporting: scrutinising the requirements of comparability, transparency and reflection of sustainability performance," Society and Economy, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 40(1), pages 19-44, March.
    20. Ittner, Christopher D. & Larcker, David F. & Randall, Taylor, 2003. "Performance implications of strategic performance measurement in financial services firms," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(7-8), pages 715-741.
    21. Borghesi, Richard & Houston, Joel F. & Naranjo, Andy, 2014. "Corporate socially responsible investments: CEO altruism, reputation, and shareholder interests," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 164-181.
    22. Lois Mahoney & Linda Thorn, 2006. "An Examination of the Structure of Executive Compensation and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Canadian Investigation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 69(2), pages 149-162, December.
    23. Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero & Emma García‐Meca, 2020. "Internal corporate governance strength as a mechanism for achieving sustainable development goals," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1189-1198, September.
    24. Guilherme Francisco do Prado & Cassiano Moro Piekarski & Leila Mendes da Luz & Jovani Taveira de Souza & Rodrigo Salvador & Antonio Carlos de Francisco, 2020. "Sustainable development and economic performance: Gaps and trends for future research," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 368-384, January.
    25. Indra Abeysekera, 2022. "A framework for sustainability reporting," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(6), pages 1386-1409, September.
    26. Indra Abeysekera, 2022. "A framework for sustainability reporting," Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(6), pages 1386-1409, September.
    27. Abagail McWilliams & Donald Siegel, 2000. "Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: correlation or misspecification?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(5), pages 603-609, May.
    28. Karpoff, Jonathan M & Lott, John R, Jr & Wehrly, Eric W, 2005. "The Reputational Penalties for Environmental Violations: Empirical Evidence," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 653-675, October.
    29. ChungMing Lau & Yuan Lu & Qiang Liang, 2016. "Corporate Social Responsibility in China: A Corporate Governance Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 73-87, June.
    30. M. A. Gulzar & Jacob Cherian & Jinsoo Hwang & Yushi Jiang & Muhammad Safdar Sial, 2019. "The Impact of Board Gender Diversity and Foreign Institutional Investors on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Engagement of Chinese Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-19, January.
    31. Feng, Harry & Rao, Ramesh P., 2018. "Cash holdings and CEO risk incentive compensation: Effect of CEO risk aversion," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 162-176.
    32. Titman, Sheridan & Wei, K. C. John & Xie, Feixue, 2004. "Capital Investments and Stock Returns," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(4), pages 677-700, December.
    33. Shihping Kevin Huang, 2013. "The Impact of CEO Characteristics on Corporate Sustainable Development," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(4), pages 234-244, July.
    34. Ye Cai & Hoje Jo & Carrie Pan, 2011. "Vice or Virtue? The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Executive Compensation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 159-173, December.
    35. Maretno Harjoto & Hoje Jo, 2011. "Corporate Governance and CSR Nexus," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 100(1), pages 45-67, April.
    36. Ederson Jorge Melo das Chagas & José de Lima Albuquerque & Luiz Flávio Arreguy Maia Filho & Alessandra Carla Ceolin, 2022. "Sustainable development, disclosure to stakeholders and the Sustainable Development Goals: Evidence from Brazilian banks' non‐financial reports," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1975-1986, December.
    37. Yanqi Sun, 2023. "Can the innovation in sustainability disclosures reflect organisational sustainable development? An integrated reporting perspective from China," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 1668-1680, June.
    38. Cheng Hsiao, 2007. "Rejoinder on: Panel data analysis—advantages and challenges," TEST: An Official Journal of the Spanish Society of Statistics and Operations Research, Springer;Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, vol. 16(1), pages 56-57, May.
    39. Paul C. Godfrey & Craig B. Merrill & Jared M. Hansen, 2009. "The relationship between corporate social responsibility and shareholder value: an empirical test of the risk management hypothesis," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 425-445, April.
    40. Nguyen Vinh Khuong & Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman & Abdelrhman Meero & Le Huu Tuan Anh & Nguyen Thanh Liem & Cao Thi Mien Thuy & Huynh Thi Ngoc Ly, 2022. "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure and Accounting Comparability on Earnings Persistence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-14, February.
    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. Jian, Ming & Lee, Kin-Wai, 2015. "CEO compensation and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 46-65.
    2. Shahid Ali & Junrui Zhang & Muhammad Usman & Muhammad Kaleem Khan & Farman Ullah Khan & Muhammad Abubakkar Siddique, 2020. "Do tournament incentives motivate chief executive officers to be socially responsible?," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 35(5), pages 597-619, February.
    3. Jingjing Huang, 2023. "Doing good in periods of political turnover: the turnover of local officials, local corruption and corporate social responsibility," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(4), pages 781-833, December.
    4. Chakraborty, Atreya & Gao, Lucia Silva & Sheikh, Shahbaz, 2019. "Managerial risk taking incentives, corporate social responsibility and firm risk," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 58-72.
    5. Collins E. Okafor & Nacasius U. Ujah & Eunho Cho & Winifred U. Okafor & Kevin L. James, 2023. "The Moderating Effect of a Golden Parachute on the Association between CSR and Firm Value: Does Gender-Driven Innovation Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-23, March.
    6. 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.
    7. Ho, Hillbun & Kim, Namwoon & Reza, Sadat, 2022. "CSR and CEO pay: Does CEO reputation matter?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 1034-1049.
    8. Yiqing Tan, 2024. "Local Tournament Incentives and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 211-228, September.
    9. Jongwon Park & Sunyoung Kim & Albert Tsang, 2023. "CEO Personal Hedging and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(1), pages 199-221, January.
    10. Ahmed A. Sarhan & Basil Al‐Najjar, 2023. "The influence of corporate governance and shareholding structure on corporate social responsibility: The key role of executive compensation," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 4532-4556, October.
    11. Jin Yan & Talat Mehmood Khan & Naiping Zhu & Muhammad Awais Khan & Hazrat Hassan, 2024. "Does CEO’s initial tenure enhance CSR practices? Evaluating the consequences of CEO’s initial tenure CSR engagement in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(9), pages 22839-22862, September.
    12. Koo, KwangJoo (KJ) & Kim, Jae B., 2025. "Managerial pessimism and investment in corporate social responsibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    13. Boubaker, Sabri & Chebbi, Kaouther & Grira, Jocelyn, 2020. "Top management inside debt and corporate social responsibility? Evidence from the US," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 98-115.
    14. Bhaskar, Ratikant & Li, Peigong & Bansal, Shashank & Kumar, Satish, 2023. "A new insight on CEO characteristics and corporate social responsibility (CSR): A meta-analytical review," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    15. Bu, Luofan & Chan, Kam C. & Choi, Ahrum & Zhou, Gaoguang, 2021. "Talented inside directors and corporate social responsibility: A tale of two roles," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    16. Jie Chen & Xicheng Liu & Wei Song, 2018. "CEO general managerial skills and corporate social responsibility," Working Papers 2018-16, Swansea University, School of Management.
    17. Li, Chengcheng & Wang, Xiaoqiong, 2022. "Local peer effects of corporate social responsibility," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    18. 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.
    19. Bryan Hong & Zhichuan Li & Dylan Minor, 2016. "Corporate Governance and Executive Compensation for Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 199-213, June.
    20. Muhammad Kaleem Khan & R. M. Ammar Zahid & Adil Saleem & Judit Sági, 2021. "Board Composition and Social & Environmental Accountability: A Dynamic Model Analysis of Chinese Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-18, September.

    More about this item

    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:wly:sustdv:v:31:y:2023:i:4:p:2548-2564. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    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.