Social determinants of sustainability: The imprinting effect of social class background on corporate environmental responsibility

Abstract

Using a large sample of 10,668 small-and medium-sized private Chinese enterprises over the 2006-2014 period, this study investigates the effect of the social class background of entrepreneurs on firm corporate environmental responsibility (CER) activities. The research question is developed using the concepts of imprinting theory. We measure the social class background of entrepreneurs as the level of occupational prestige held by the individual prior to starting a business. Results show that entrepreneurs drawn from the upper and lower social classes show a preference for the pursuit of environmental governance investment strategies. Moderating influences based on political capital and institutional environment are also explored. The theory and findings highlight that the social class background of entrepreneurs has a lasting and varying impact on the CER activities of a firm. The results are robust to a variety of sensitivity tests. The study extends our understanding of how and why enterprise CER behaviour varies, particularly in the context of Chinese private firms, and offers important implications for the task of sustainable development by enterprises.

Strength of auditing and reporting standards, ethical behavior of firms and sustainability: a cross-country investigation

“…While there are some studies in the literature that have examined the determinants of sustainability reporting at company level (e.g. Niu et al , 2020; Kuzey and Uyar, 2017), country level (e.g. Koirala and Pradhan, 2020), we are not aware about any empirical enquiry that has been specifically devoted to the topic explored in this paper.…”

The impact of governmental initiatives on corporate environmental responsibility: the case of the Belt and Road Initiative

“…The internal factors are mainly related to the characteristic of the enterprise and the characteristic of the management, such as political connections (Zhang, 2017), slack resources (Reimann et al. , 2015), social class background of entrepreneurs (Niu et al. , 2020), board social ties (Zou et al.…”

“…The external factors include the intensity of environmental regulation (Graafland, 2019), media coverage or public opinion (Burke, 2022), the level of market competition (Tsendsuren et al, 2021) and external stakeholders pressure (Aguinis and Glavas, 2012;Lee et al, 2018). The internal factors are mainly related to the characteristic of the enterprise and the characteristic of the management, such as political connections (Zhang, 2017), slack resources (Reimann et al, 2015), social class background of entrepreneurs (Niu et al, 2020), board social ties (Zou et al, 2019) and so on.…”

The quality of management schools, the ethical behavior of firms and sustainability level: a cross-country investigation

“…While there are some empirical enquiries in the literature that have examined the determinants of sustainability reporting at company level (e.g. Niu, Zhou, & Pei, 2020;Kuzey & Uyar, 2017) and country level (e.g. Koirala & Pradhan, 2020;Guidara et al, 2022), we are not aware about any empirical enquiry that has been specifically devoted to this research topic.…”