Market and Institutional Factors in Corporate Contributions

Community isomorphism and corporate social action

“…Exploring the institutional dynamics of community influence under different boundary conditions, demarcated by industry, socioeconomic, or firm-level characteristics, is one promising strategy. The idea that there are size and industry differences in corporate funding patterns is accepted wisdom (Kirchberg, 1995;Useem, 1988) and consistent with institutionalists' notions of variations in organizational fields (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). Future investigators might try to tease out how communitylevel institutional effects vary, given other socioeconomic and demographic differences within local populations.…”

“…Previous studies, for example, have found philanthropy to vary significantly with corporate size and industry (Galaskiewicz, 1997;Guthrie, 2003;Wolpert, 1993). Banks and utilities rank near the top on indices of corporate social responsibility; manufacturers and service firms have characteristically different patterns of giving (Kirchberg, 1995;Useem, 1988). Also important are local socioeconomic contexts, including local income levels (Wolpert, 1993) and educational attainment (Kirchberg, 1995).…”

Corporate Philanthropic Responses to Emergent Human Needs: The Role of Organizational Attention Focus

“…Yet organizations sometimes respond charitably to human needs in locations where they do not operate, and may not respond to human needs in the locations where they do. Thus 'place embeddedness' (Tilcsik and Marquis 2013) in the form of the structural pressures firms experience from the communities in which they operate, be it at home (Galaskiewicz 1997;Marquis et al 2007;Useem 1988) or overseas (Brammer et al 2009), is an incomplete explanation of corporate philanthropy. We extend beyond the embeddedness explanation to argue that corporate philanthropy, as a form of organization-external resource allocation, is subject to similar attention dynamics as are resources allocated within organizations.…”

A Theory of Collective Empathy in Corporate Philanthropy Decisions

“…This strategic perspective proposes that managers should think purposefully about how addressing social causes may generate fiscal and financial benefits (Lev et al, 2010;Navarro, 1998;Useem, 1988) or marketing and reputational value (Bhattacharya, Korschun, & Sen, 2009;Brammer & Millington, 2005). By aligning philanthropic decision making with the strategic goals of the organization (Marquis & Lee, 2012), an organization is supposed to avoid the ineffective "hodgepodge of uncoordinated CSR and philanthropic activities disconnected from the company's strategy" (Porter & Kramer, 2006: 4) and be able to enhance its "competitive context" (Porter & Kramer, 2002: 3).…”