Corporate Social Responsibility Practices in Supply Chains and Their Impact on Performance of Korean Firms
出版項
2018
說明
1 online resource (123 pages)
文字
text
無媒介
computer
成冊
online resource
附註
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 80-02(E), Section: A
Adviser: Nallan C. Suresh
Thesis (Ph.D.)--State University of New York at Buffalo, 2018
Includes bibliographical references
This dissertation investigates the behavior of large corporations in Korea, including the Korean business group referred to as chaebol, with respect to strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation in supply chains. A large body of CSR research has examined the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) and found inconsistent associations. For the most part, past empirical research has been restricted to the contexts of developed countries, and there is a dearth of knowledge on CSR-related issues in countries transitioning to developed economies. Korea offers an interesting empirical setting for studying an organizational response to CSR initiatives. There is a growing institutional pressure to conform to new rules and regulations in advanced capital markets as well as effects of changing interests of stakeholders on supplier-buyer relations. This dissertation focuses on CSR investments related to business practices in purchasing and supply management of large corporations, which are often subject to criticism for their strategic decisions that deviate from normative society standards. However, these firms owe their success in large measure to connections with, and active support of the government. Given the historical paths of institutional development and their success of government intervention, the current study investigates the unanswered question how the corporate social strategy of supply chains contributes to firms' position and profit in institutions that experience rapid change. This dissertation consists of two essays that share common theoretical and empirical ground to expand our understanding of how the strategic value of CSR in supply chains is captured by the dominant economic force of large corporations, which characterize contemporary institutional changes in Korea
The objective of the first essay is to explore the relationship between firms' participation in supply chain cooperation policy and financial performance based on 6-year longitudinal data from Korea. This paper adopts instrumental stakeholder theory to analyze the antecedents and economic consequences of large corporations' strategic choices for voluntary agreements in supply chain sustainability policy. This essay tests instrument stakeholder theory's main proposition -- a subset of ethical principles such as mutual trust and cooperation can lead to significant competitive advantage -- within a stakeholder management perspective on supply chains. There is also noticeable paucity of research investigating the social aspects of sustainability in the supply chain management field, compared with production and environmental issues. This paper thus aims to fill this gap and take a critical look at the cost side of CSR investments in the stakeholder relationship across supply chains. By examining the interaction effects of resource efficiency (i.e., production, marketing, and inventory efficiency) on sustainability investments and performance, the present paper addresses a plausible cost concern about the potential downsides of CSR investments raised by instrumental stakeholder theory. Resource efficiency approach can also mitigate the effects of potential omitted variables that are long discussed in CSR research. While stakeholder theory has proceeded from the normative need to address 'what corporations should or should not do', unobserved heterogeneity on strategic choice has been widely recognized in instrumental stakeholder theory as a critical issue in modeling firms' selection behavior. Empirically, the current essay corrects a possible self-selection and endogeneity problem with a treatment effects model by two stage and maximum likelihood estimation. The findings provide evidence in support of instrument stakeholder theory despite the loss of inventory efficiency
The second essay of the dissertation provides an empirical explanation of the Korean business group chaebol responding to CSR pressure from multiple stakeholders. Korea has experienced a coercive and rapid change in economic and regulatory institutions as a consequence of the bailout agreement with the International Monetary Fund in 1997. This economy thus illustrates how CSR strategies have changed in a more sustainable manner from the standpoint of formal and informal institutions while transforming to an advanced market economy. Drawing on instrumental stakeholder theory, this essay investigates the extent to which corporate social strategy may contribute to financial performance of Korean companies. The prior empirical work shows that community and non-government organization forces exert intense pressure on chaebols' strategic decision-making processes that encapsulate salient socioemotional, sociopolitical, and socioeconomic features of the country. This essay identifies the strategic nature of CSR by analyzing six subfields of corporate social performance based on Korean corporate data collected from a major financial data provider (Korea Listed Companies Association) and a pioneering nonprofit CSR institution (Korea Economic Justice Institution). This essay attempts to shed additional light on multi-stakeholder mechanisms through which the business groups respond to different CSR demands, taking account of contemporary institutional changes and legitimacy issues. Therefore, this dissertation hopes to break new ground in both theoretical and methodological issues germane to the area of investigation of CSR and related managerial issues
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Mich. : ProQuest, 2019
