Knowledge-based Entrepreneurship Corporate Social Responsibility And Entrepreneurial Performance

The multi-channel interactions between the firms and the society make corporate social responsibility(CSR) an important theoretical focus that attract more and more researchers. The literature review shows that little researches investigated the CSR of entrepreneurial firms because of their newness and smallness. But in fact, entrepreneurial firms have unique characteristics, and participate in CSR practices in their own ways. This paper aimed to explore the model of CSR through new research approaches. Four studies were conducted to uncover the causality and mechanism of CSR in entrepreneurial process.StudyⅠis an interview study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in 15 different knowledge intensive ventures(KIVs). The entrepreneurs or managers of these firms were asked to list the critical incidents of CSR to achieve corporate-society fit(C-S fit). Based on the interview, the study initially came up with the construct of CSR under Chinese culture background by content analysis. The results indicated that CSR is composed of corporate citizenship, social opportunity identification and social innovation orientation. The new construct represents the C-S fit theory in CSR research field.StudyⅡis a case study. Taking on CSR and creating social value are the main goals that KIVs strive to achieve. However, why the KIVs prefer to take on CSR even though resources are limited? Based on the interview, this study tried to explore the motivation and the dynamics of CSR. KIVs were selected in logistics, pharmaceutical and IT sectors. The results show that the motivations of CSR are composed of value, accommodating pressure and commercial interests. The value motivation impacts three dimensions of CSR, the pressure accommodation motivation mostly influences social innovation orientation, and the commercial interest motivation influences social opportunity identification and social innovation orientation.StudyⅢis a questionnaire study. The study is conducted to explore the model of CSR with the sample of KIVs. Study III includes two sub-studies. In the first sub-study, the three-dimension construct of CSR was validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and the differences of CSR among individuals and organizations are also tested. In the second sub-study, the function mechanism of CSR was investigated though correlation analysis, multi-regression analysis and structure equation modeling.StudyⅣis an experiment study. This study designed paper and pencil experiment on CSR. StudyⅣincludes three sub-studies of 2×2 between-subjects design with the sample of 120 undergraduate students respectively. The first and the second sub-studies test the moderating effect of communication and trust on the relationship between CSR and entrepreneurial support network, while the third sub-study tests the mediating effect of entrepreneurial support network and the moderating effect of environmental factors on the relationship between CSR and venture performance. The results show that the trust and environmental factors have moderating effects on the process of CSR formation while the effect of communication is not validated. The experiment simulation compared the different CSR modes and enriched the research method of CSR studies.Totally different from the typology approach of previous research on CSR, the present study viewed CSR as a kind of practice of C-S fit and come to the conclusions as followings: 1. The new concept of CSR has three dimensions: corporate citizenship, social opportunity identification and social innovation orientation. 2.The three antecedents of CSR are value, accommodating pressure and commercial interest. And different motivations lead to different CSR formation mechanism. 3. Entrepreneurial support network partly mediates the impact of CSR on venture performance. 4.Trust moderates the impact of CSR on entrepreneurial support network while environmental munificence has the moderating effect on the relationship between CSR and entrepreneurial performance.The present study has made three theoretical progresses as follows: 1.New perspective on CSR. Different from typology construct of CSR, this paper puts forward a three-dimension construct of CSR based on C-S fit theory.2.New theoretical extension on fit research. This paper extends the prior fit research from P-E fit to C-S fit, and from static fit to dynamic fit. 3. New dynamics of CSR. This paper not only validates the direct impact of CSR on entrepreneurial performance but also find the mediating effect of entrepreneurial support network.Finally, the theoretical progresses and practical implications were discussed, as well as the limitations of this study and the directions for future research.