Department of Business Management, School of Economics and Business Administration, Chongqing University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
College of Economics and Management, Southwest University, Chongqing, People's Republic of China.
PLoS One. 2024 Apr 1;19(4):e0300262. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300262. eCollection 2024.
Top managers' past experiences (e.g., foreign experience) significantly impact their decision-making behavior, which may influence firms' sustainable development. The available literature, focusing on the role of the increase in the number of top executives with foreign experience in corporate social responsibility (CSR), yields mixed results. In order to clarify the ambiguous relationship between executive foreign experience and CSR, we empirically examine the effect of the geographic diversity of top executives' foreign experience on CSR. Based on a hand-collected dataset of the top management team's (TMT's) foreign experience, we demonstrate the positive impact of the geographic diversity of returnee executives' foreign experience on firms' CSR using Chinese A-share listed firms from 2009 to 2018. Moreover, this impact is stronger in firms with political connections with the central government and in regions with good market development. Furthermore, the mechanism analysis shows that returnee executives drive firms' CSR by promoting corporate donations and green innovation. This paper offers clear policy implications by suggesting that hiring returnees with a broad geographic scope of foreign experience as corporate executives is an efficient way to enhance firms' CSR.
高管的过往经历(如海外经历)会显著影响其决策行为,从而可能影响企业的可持续发展。现有文献主要关注高管中具有海外工作经验的人数增加对企业社会责任(CSR)的作用,研究结果并不一致。为了厘清高管海外工作经验与 CSR 之间的模糊关系,我们实证检验了高管海外工作经验的地域多样性对 CSR 的影响。基于高管团队(TMT)海外工作经验的手工收集数据集,我们利用 2009 年至 2018 年中国 A 股上市公司的数据,证明了归国高管海外工作经验的地域多样性对企业 CSR 的积极影响。此外,这种影响在与中央政府有政治关联的企业和市场发展良好的地区更为显著。此外,机制分析表明,归国高管通过促进企业捐赠和绿色创新来推动企业的 CSR。本文通过建议招聘具有广泛海外工作经验地域范围的归国人员作为企业高管是提高企业 CSR 的有效途径,为政策制定提供了明确的启示。