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Are R&D-intensive firms also corporate social responsibility specialists? A multicountry study
Fu, Limin Boehe, Dirk Orlitzky, Marc
Fu, Limin
Boehe, Dirk
Orlitzky, Marc
Author
Abstract
Seeking to obtain efficiency in the development and integration of knowledge about R&D and corporate social responsibility (CSR), firms face hard choices about their resource allocation to these two areas because of the specialized nature of knowledge and related barriers to integration. We address this organizational resource allocation dilemma by relaxing the common assumption that firms are either responsible or irresponsible and examining financial slack as a possible moderator. Using a multicountry sample of 1,957 firms over a 16-year timespan, we find strong empirical support for the positive association between firms' R&D intensity and CSR specialization, a novel concept that—distinct from CSR as such—gauges the extent to which firms specialize in specific environmental, social, or governance aspects of CSR. However, there is insufficient support for financial slack as a moderator in general (except for one noteworthy industry pattern and an alternative operationalization of slack). The exceptions suggest that the nature of organizational slack may influence the relationship between R&D and CSR specialization.
Keywords
corporate social responsibility, integration, organizational knowledge, R&D intensity, slack
Date
2020
Type
Journal article
Journal
Research Policy
Book
Volume
49
Issue
8
Page Range
1-16
Article Number
ACU Department
Peter Faber Business School
Faculty of Law and Business
Faculty of Law and Business
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Open Access Status
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