| As a U.S. corporate tradition, corporate philanthropy recently began to play a salient role in the globalization of multinational corporations (MNCs1). However, previous empirical research on corporate philanthropy has primarily focused on U.S. companies in the United States and occasionally on foreign MNCs in the United States. Will corporate philanthropy still work the same way for U.S. and other national MNCs when they go to a host country without such a corporate tradition? Collecting interview and archival data from 37 U.S. and European insurance companies present in China, this research inductively explored MNCs' philanthropic behavior in a non-U.S. host country and its impact on market entry. It found that: (1) corporate philanthropy was built into a business norm for market entry among the MNCs in the host country, (2) the MNCs' philanthropy was heavily influenced by the host country government, peer MNCs, and their own corporate headquarters, and (3) corporate philanthropy brought about competitive advantages to the first-mover MNCs into the host country and reduced liability of foreignness and enhanced organizational legitimacy for the late-mover MNCs. Detailed propositions for further research and practice implications are also discussed.; 1Appendix A lists all acronyms and abbreviations used in this dissertation. |
