Abstract

Researchers increasingly study how firms pursue corporate social responsibility (CSR). In three related but stand-alone chapters, I advance this shift toward understanding different CSR approaches, and outcomes associated with them. Chapter 1 develops a multidimensional view of CSR signals in the context of strategic alliance formations. It argues environmental, social, and governance responsibilities signal a firm's innovativeness, commitment, and conscientiousness, shaping its ability to form alliances. Results indicate that environmental and social responsibility signals generally predict alliance formations, governance responsibility signals do not, and the CSR signals predict different types of alliance formations, given their governance structure or activity domain. Chapter 2 develops a portfolio-based view of CSR-as-insurance, introducing CSR portfolio industry-contribution and industry-conformity as two constructs that should shape CSR's overall insurance value. Results indicate that CSR reduces the severity of market losses firms suffer after a misconduct event, but it does not aid their recovery. Surprisingly, neither CSR portfolio industry-contribution nor industry-conformity moderates CSR's insurance value, these non-effects have remained stable, and CSR's insurance-like effect on the severity of losses has increased. I also find CSR portfolio industry-conformity independently aids firms' recovery. Chapter 3 develops a CSR portfolio theory. This theory loosens assumptions in the portfolio-based view of CSR regarding which stakeholders and performance outcomes managers should prioritize in CSR-related decision-making. It gives managers a central role in identifying whom their firms are responsible to and how they should respond to their responsibilities. From this foundation, I identify two attributes that characterize all CSR portfolios––integrativeness and congruence––which capture a CSR portfolio's relationships to stakeholder-related issues and relationships among the initiatives included in it. Drawing from research on complementarities in consumption and production, I explain how these attributes predict managers' ability to optimize the impact of their firms' CSR efforts on the stakeholder-related issues they target.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2023

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Blevins, Dane

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Business Administration

Degree Program

Business Administration; Management Track

Identifier

CFE0009797; DP0027905

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0027905

Language

English

Release Date

August 2028

Length of Campus-only Access

5 years

Access Status

Doctoral Dissertation (Campus-only Access)

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Restricted to the UCF community until August 2028; it will then be open access.

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