“…Corporate philanthropy refers to the voluntary, unconditional transfer of cash or other assets by firms for public purposes (Gautier & Pache, 2015 ). While earlier studies often viewed it as a component of corporate social responsibility (hereafter “CSR”) (Carroll, 1979 ; Dahlsrud, 2008 ; Wood, 1991 ), recent studies have highlighted that corporate philanthropy plays more important strategic roles in meeting the expectations of some key stakeholders, particularly in emerging economies such as China (e.g., Li et al, 2015 ; Lindgreen et al, 2009a ; Wang & Qian, 2011 ; Zhang et al, 2020 ). We first propose that firms donate less to philanthropic causes when they have a higher proportion of returnee executives, because returnee executives may be less likely than local executives to recognize the strategic value of philanthropy in emerging economies.…”