CSR-based Differentiation Strategy of Export Firms From Developing Countries

Abstract

This study investigates the influences of the strategy tripod, an established concept in the international business (IB) literature, on a corporate social responsibility (CSR)-based differentiation strategy for export firms. This strategy is conceived as consisting of product-level and firm-level CSR. Using a sample of 195 Brazilian export firms, the authors find that innovation capabilities, international market exposure, and institutional pressures significantly influence product-level CSR; however, the latter two factors influence firm-level CSR only through their mediating effects on product-level CSR. This study contributes to the existing CSR and IB literature in three ways. First, it integrates and systematizes the factors influencing CSR-based strategies into the three categories represented by the legs of the strategy tripod to help elucidate the previous research on the factors that drive CSR. Second, it suggests that exporters’ CSR strategies can be affected by social and environmental institutions based outside their home countries. Third, this study contributes to filling an important empirical gap in the research on CSR by focusing on export ventures from emerging countries.

Avaliação sobre a instrumentalização empírica do tripé da estratégia: análise das fraquezas e oportunidades

“…Ju et al, (2014) and Krull et al, (2012) measure RBV networks and relationships of companies. The innovation capacity is used as a metric by two authors (Luo et al, 2011, Barin Cruz et al, 2013. Xie et al (2011) consider RBV as the international experience of the company, since internationalization develops competences for the company.…”

“…Some apply the concept of institutional distance (Barin Cruz et al, 2013, Ju et al, 2014, while others use the competitiveness index (Xie et al, 2011). Institutional distance measures the difference between the indexes of two countries (home market and destination country) in which the degree of development of institutional dimensions, such as political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory aspects, laws, corruption, culture in a relative way.…”

“…Institutional distance measures the difference between the indexes of two countries (home market and destination country) in which the degree of development of institutional dimensions, such as political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory aspects, laws, corruption, culture in a relative way. Institutional distance is related to the formal and informal institutions of each country (Berry, Guillen, & Zhou, 2010), and was used by some articles (Barin Cruz et al, 2013, Ju et al, 2014 as a proxy for to IV. Van Hoorn and Maseland (2016) distinguish between the measurement of the effects of the institutional profile and the use of institutional distance in international business research.…”

“…Therefore, it is not possible to know or understand the cause of dissimilarity between the institutions of the different evaluated markets. It is estimated that in the case of IV there are three studies that use secondary data to perform this measurement (Barin Cruz et al, 2013, Ju et al, 2014, Xie et al, 2011. Theoretically it is intended to apply the same theoretical basis, which is curious because the data on which the surveys are based comes from different sources.…”

“…This research focuses on the strategy tripod formulated by Peng, et al (2008), for its wide application in the international business literature. It can be observed that several authors use this theoretical basis for the development of studies in the area (Barin Cruz, Boehe, & Ogasavara, 2013, Gao, Murray, Kotabe, & Lu, 2010, Ju, Zhao, & Wang, 2014, Krull, Smith, & Ge, 2012, Xie, Zhao, Xie, & Arnold, 2011. However, in the seminal articles in which the theoretical construct of the strategy tripod is proposed (Peng et al, 2008, Peng, Sun, Pinkham, & Chen, 2009, it is not possible to explain how such an operation would take place.…”