Effects of CEOs’ Negative Traits on Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

Abstract:The dark triad, composed of Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism, refers to negative personality traits, which may influence business processes. While negative traits could be an important factor explaining the relationship between a CEO's immoral and unethical behavior and corporate social responsibility (CSR), there has been minimal research focusing on this relationship. This paper thus attempts to investigate how a CEO exhibiting these negative traits affects CSR, and if an employee's perception of ethics and social responsibility would mediate the relationship. In addition, this paper considers the moderating effects of an individual performance-based compensation system (IPBCS) between employee's CSR perception and CSR activities. The data are collected through a survey conducted on 165 employees (companies) in twelve industries. The regression result indicates an inverse relationship between the negative traits of a CEO and an employee's perception of ethics and social responsibility and CSR activities, and the mediating effect of the perception in the relationship between the negative traits and CSR activities. It also indicates that an IPBCS moderates the relationship between CSR perception and activities. Implications for the study, future research directions, and management approach are discussed.

e-Purchase Intention of Taiwanese Consumers: Sustainable Mediation of Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use

“…The demographic information of the respondents includes: gender (Female, 59.5%) and age (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)54.1%; 26-45, 45.9%). Regarding the age of online shoppers, up to 94.9% are youngsters from 16 to 35.…”

“…Most authors conduct their studies under separate models of the Big Five Personality Trait Model [24] and Technology Acceptance Model [25] (Figure 1). Previous research has also studied purchase Intention [26].…”

Impression management against early dismissal? CEO succession and corporate social responsibility

“…including CEO narcissism (Tang, Mack, & Chen, 2018), CEO confidence (McCarthy, Oliver, & Song, 2017), CEO power (Muttakin, Khan, & Mihret, 2018), CEO tenure (Chen, Zhou, & Zhu, 2018), CEO traits (Myung, Choi, & Kim, 2017) as well as CEO responsible leadership style (Maak, Pless, & Voegtlin, 2016). Though the effect of CEOs' characteristics on CSR has been widely analyzed, the premise that this effect is stable across various contexts is problematic, which makes the contextualization quite necessary.…”

Do Private Benefits of Control Affect Corporate Social Responsibility? Evidence from China

“…In the perspective of manager characteristics, Manner [45] explored the impact of CEO characteristics on CSR performance comprehensively, finding that CEO's education background, career experience, gender and compensation have significant effects on CSR performance. Specifically, Myung, Choi and Kim [46] argued that there is a negative correlation between CEOs' negative traits and corporate social responsibility. Firm culture is also an important factor influencing CSR performance [47].…”