Microregional patterns of corporate philanthropy: the role of economic structure and regional determinants

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>We aim to describe and explain current differences in the rate of corporate philanthropy (CP) at microregional level. Primary research question is to what extent are microregional patterns of CP affected by determinants at firm and industry-level (firm size, industrial structure, profitability) and to what extent are they shaped by regional contextual factors. Measurement of CP was based on anonymized firm-level data provided by the Ministry of Finance, aggregated at the level of municipalities with extended powers (microregions). We employed a regression model to test the effects of population density, economic performance, specialization, dependence of manufacturing, firm size, traditional values and social capital. Surprisingly, we found no significant effects of firm size and industrial structure on regional CP. Firm’s profitability was the most important predictor. We found also positive effects of population density and religiosity and negative relationship between CP and regional economic performance. Despite initial expectations higher rate of CP was not found in rural regions.</jats:p>

Industrial Structure and Economic Resilience of Non-Metropolitan Regions: An Empirical Base for the Smart Specialization Policies

“…Interestingly, while we failed to find any significant association between the economic structure and regional economic resilience in 1997, these relationships started to be significant in 2007. These findings confirm the assumption that, during the 1990s, regional contextual factors (see [91] for a discussion of this term), partly inherited from the socialist era, obscured the effects of industrial and firm size structure. After the privatization and integration of the Slovak economy into the global production networks through the inflow of foreign direct investment and other mechanisms, the effects of industrial and firm size structure, empirically proven in many countries, appeared to also be significant in Slovakia.…”