Giving Green an Office: Whether and When Appointing a Chief Sustainability Officer Affects CS(i)R

Ruchunyi Fu, Yi Tang, Guoli Chen

    Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceedingConference proceedingpeer-review

    Abstract

    Grounded in upper echelons theory, this study analyzes the social performance consequences of having a chief sustainability officer (CSO) in the top management team (TMT). We predict that appointing a CSO will increase a firm’s socially responsible activities (CSR) and reduce its socially irresponsible activities (CSiR). We further explore the multi-level boundary conditions of these relationships. With a sample of S&P 500 firms for 2005-2014, we find a positive (negative) relationship between CSO presence and CSR (CSiR). Moreover, the CSO-CSiR relationship becomes stronger when the CSO is professionally competent, when the CSO has personal connections with the CEO, when the firm has a corporate social responsibility committee on the board, and when the firm is in a culpable industry, but the relationship is weaker when the firm has a bad prior record of social performance. Implications to strategic leadership research and the corporate social performance literature are discussed.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationAcademy of Management Proceedings 2018
    EditorsSonia Taneja
    PublisherAcademy of Management
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2018
    Event78th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, AOM 2018: Improving Lives - Chicago, United States
    Duration: 10 Aug 201814 Aug 2018
    https://aom.org/events/annual-meeting/past-annual-meetings/2018-improving-lives (Conference website)
    https://journals.aom.org/toc/amproc/2018/1 (Conference proceedings)

    Publication series

    NameAcademy of Management Proceedings
    PublisherAcademy of Management
    ISSN (Print)0065-0668
    ISSN (Electronic)2151-6561

    Conference

    Conference78th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, AOM 2018
    Country/TerritoryUnited States
    CityChicago
    Period10/08/1814/08/18
    Internet address

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