Afshar, Taha
(2012)
Corporate philanthropy in the UK and US: the impact of cycles, strategy and CEO succession.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
Theoretical and empirical debates surrounding corporate philanthropy
(CP) date back to the 1930s, but have recently grown in line with the
importance of corporate social responsibility in the public realm.
Through three papers, this thesis adds to these debates by filling gaps
in our understanding of CP, relating to the cyclical nature of cash and
in-kind giving, how different ways of giving can influence profitability,
and the relative importance of the CEO. We do this using a panel of
620 large firms in the UK over 14 years, and 500 US firms over 12
years, enabling us to capture the heterogeneity between firms. Our key
theoretical contribution is to state that an integrated theory ought to be
developed, which considers the influence of firm costs, strategy and
the CEO as factors determining CP. Given the exposed limitations of
stakeholder, agency and leadership theories, we propose that a new
theory be developed, one which stresses the importance of managerial
discretion and values, whilst also considering how firm-level attributes
can determine giving.
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