Change above the Glass Ceiling: Internationalization CEO Characteristics and Corporate Social Responsibility from the Institutional Theory Perspective

Abstract

Change above the Glass Ceiling: Internationalization CEO Characteristics and Corporate Social Responsibility from the Institutional Theory Perspective Author: Wei-Ting Wang Advisor: Wen-Ting Lin Institute of International Business National Cheng Kung University SUMMARY The purpose of this thesis is to understand how it affects companies to deal with gender diversity issue while facing the outer institutional environment such as foreign investments foreign markets and professional groups based on the institutional theory perspective Meanwhile this study not only investigated the effects of external environment but also considered the internal corporate conditions like CEO characteristics especially on CEO narcissism and CEO hubris as moderators so as to provide a more complete research This study used 390 Taiwanese listed firms on TEJ database from 2016 to 2017 as the samples The empirical evidence indicates that both foreign investment and CSR performances in host countries are positively related to gender diversity Furthermore this study points out that corporate governance evaluation performance strengthens these two positive relationships and both positive relationships are weaker when the CEO is hubris Also the positive relationship between foreign investment and gender diversity is stronger when the CEO is narcissism This study has important theoretical contributions First in the past studies on internationalization scholars paid more attention on cross-cultural management while in this study we try to connect the corporate internationalized process with CSR strategies Second in the existing literatures it was discussed about the corporate internationalized strategies and CSR activities mostly based on stakeholder theory and agency cost theory but in this study we use institutional theory to describe the relationship between the corporate internationalized strategies and CSR activities t Third although the main idea of this study is related to CSR strategies it covers strategic human resource management to define the interaction among internationalized activities CSR strategies and labor recruitment Also we make the contingency perspective of SHRM fruitful by linking up with institutional theory Key words: Corporate Social Responsibility Institutional Theory CEO Narcissism CEO Hubris INTRODUCTION In recent years “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)” has become a globally focused issue in industrial political and academic areas In particular “gender diversity” is one of important indexes for companies to fulfill with their social responsibility in Taiwan Because Taiwan’s traditional culture emphasizes on “Men are breadwinners; women are homemakers” Despite rapid economic development in Taiwan gender disparity in the workplace has persisted Therefore based on the institutional theory perspective this study intends to explore how it affects companies to deal with the gender diversity when facing the outer institutional environment like foreign investments foreign markets professional groups and so on In addition this study would like to understand the moderating effects from CSR awards corporate operative performances CEO narcissism and CEO hubris MATERIALS AND METHODS We used 390 Taiwanese listed companies from 2016-2017 The samples used for this study are obtained from the Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) Moreover we took reference on Common Wealth Magazine and Global Views Monthly to collect CSR rewarding datum Taipei Exchange official website for corporate governance evaluation performance datum and RebocoSam’s ranking for CSR performance of host countries Descriptive statistics analysis and multiple regression analysis are applied in this empirical research RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The empirical results show that the positive relationship between the internationalization including both foreign investment and CSR performance in host countries and gender diversity are supported As for the moderating effects corporate governance evaluation performance and CEO hubris are supported However as for the moderating effect on CSR awards it’s not supported The last moderating effect on CEO narcissism is only partially supported CONCLUSION In this study we have introduced institutional theory perspective and developed the idea that how foreign investment and CSR performance in host affect firm’s CSR There are some theoretical contributions First why do firms vary so much in their stances toward corporate social responsibility? Base on stakeholder theory or agency cost theory previous researchers have overwhelmingly pursued the idea that firms engage in CSR strictly in proportion to how much pressure they are under to do so either from external forces or because of their own size and prominence Unlike the dominant stakeholder or agency cost perspectives our study applied institutional theory to directly point out how corporate internationalization affects companies to plan for their CSR strategies Second the internationalization becomes a trend many existing researches on international human resource management (IHRM) focused on cross-cultural management and expatriates Our research presents a fresh issue on IHRM by emphasizing on how companies would accelerate their employment to fit the corporate international strategies when facing the corporate internationalization like foreign investment and foreign expansion Third in the strategic human resource management (SHRM) there’s no specific theory linked with the contingency perspective of SHRM while we used the institutional theory to enrich this perspective elaborating how companies would accelerate their female managers in different institutional environments For practical implications this study suggests Taiwanese companies paying attention to CSR issue if they require resources from foreign investor and plan to engage in international investment Moreover companies can consider joining formal and informal activities held by our public sectors to get more inspiration on CSR from the leading companies Besides some CEOs are more narcissistic while others may be more hubristic but these two traits of CEOs hold different attitudes toward the extent to which their firms should engage in corporate social responsibility The board directors should pay attention to their CEOs’ candidates

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English
Supervisor	Wen-Ting Lin (Supervisor)