Conceptual and empirical research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has documented various antecedents to this important construct at institutional, organizational and individual level of analysis. In this thesis I seek to advance our understanding of what predicts firm CSR at individual level by taking a CEO-centric perspective and examining CEOs' relation to the social context (i.e. top management team) in which they make decisions on CSR. Specifically I propose that for CEOs who identify with the top management team (TMT), their firms are likely to implement more CSR actions. Drawing on ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) model, I also hypothesize that this positive relationship is affected by the performance of the TMT and the ownership structure of the firm. Based o...[ Read more ]

Conceptual and empirical research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has documented various antecedents to this important construct at institutional, organizational and individual level of analysis. In this thesis I seek to advance our understanding of what predicts firm CSR at individual level by taking a CEO-centric perspective and examining CEOs' relation to the social context (i.e. top management team) in which they make decisions on CSR. Specifically I propose that for CEOs who identify with the top management team (TMT), their firms are likely to implement more CSR actions. Drawing on ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) model, I also hypothesize that this positive relationship is affected by the performance of the TMT and the ownership structure of the firm. Based on a survey of 69 chief executives in China, I test this set of relationships. Results show that the interaction between CEO identification with TMT and TMT performance has a significantly positive effect on CSR. I discuss the implications from this study and suggest future research avenues.

Key words: CEO identification, top management team, corporate social responsibility