The effects of CEO narcissism on corporate social responsibility and irresponsibility

Abstract

This study examines how chief executive officer (CEO) narcissism influences a firm's activities associated with corporate social responsibility or irresponsibility (CSR or CSIR, respectively). Employing upper echelons theory, the approach–avoidance motivation of narcissists, and the overinvestment hypothesis, we predict that CEO narcissism positively affects both CSR and CSIR. We also propose that these relationships are negatively moderated by corporate governance structure, captured by the ratio of outside directors and the ownership of institutional investors. Empirical results from a panel dataset of U.S. firms for the 2000–2012 period provide support for our hypotheses. Our finding establishes a better theoretical and practical understanding of how a CEO's psychological personality can change a firm's behavior with respect to its social responsibility.

Chairman Narcissism and Social Responsibility Choices: The Moderating Role of Analyst Coverage

“…Model 3 examines the interaction effect of chairman narcissism and Ana on the external CSR. Chairman narcissism has a positive and significant coefficient (β = 3.264, p < 0.05), and Ana has a positive and significant coefficient (β = 5.981, p < 0.05), which are broadly consistent with the results of Hong et al [ 18 ]. However, the coefficient of the interaction between Ana and chairman narcissism is negative and significant (β = −1.366, p < 0.05), indicating that Ana weakens the positive relationship between chairman narcissism and external CSR.…”

“…Unlike overconfidence and self-esteem, narcissistic individuals are characterized by a desire for lasting appreciation. Compared with dark personality traits, such as Machiavellianism, narcissism also exhibits more self-reinforcement and high extraversion [ 17 , 18 ]. As a stable psychological and personality trait, narcissism is prevalent in managers.…”

Foreign investor engagement: Stock market liberalization and corporate green innovation in China

“…At the same time, we verify that international investors into the China's A-share market after the implementation of Stock Connect program are value investors, and when foreign investors are among the top ten shareholders of a firm, the firm's green innovation will increase significantly. Apart from Hong et al (2021), who shows that CEO narcissism positively affects corporate social (ir)responsibility based on overinvestment hypothesis, our findings demonstrating overseas value investors induced by the opening policies help the focal firms make more reasonable decisions based upon agent theory. After heterogeneity analysis on enterprise's ownership, high-tech industry and polluting industry, we find that stock market liberalization has significantly promoted both the quality and quantity of green innovation for non-state-owned enterprises, firms in high-tech industries and firms in less polluting industries, while has no notable impact on the quality of green innovation for SOEs and firms not in high-tech industry.…”

Editorial: Environmental, social, and corporate governance and sustainability

“…Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) already existed, the scope of this notion was much narrower. This was due to the fact that firms tended to consider it as part of their strategies and buried themselves in returns through CSR (Hong et al, 2022 ).…”