Research On The Impact Of Corporate Social Responsibility On Corporates' Outward Foreign Direct Investment

With in-depth implementation of China's opening-up strategy and "The Belt and Road" initiative,Chinese enterprises' "going out" has ushered in a new major historical opportunity.Facing the increasingly severe and complex international and domestic situation,China's outward foreign direct investment still maintains a healthy and orderly development,the status of a major foreign investment country continues to be consolidated,and Chinese enterprises actively integrate into the wave of globalization.However,the road for Chinese enterprises to "going out" is not smooth.With the rising of international organizations and major countries' attention to the corporate social responsibility(CSR)of multinational enterprises,enterprises are facing increasing pressure on CSR.While a great number of Chinese enterprises go abroad,it coupling with many problems,such as weak awareness of environmental protection,improper handling of labor relations,contradictions with local residents,lack of protection of investment rights and interests,frequent malignant accidents and so on,which not only hinder OFDI projects,but also affect the overseas business activities of enterprises.The report of the 19 th CPC National Congress proposed to strengthen the awareness of social responsibility,rules and dedication.In the process of "going out",enterprises should tell the Chinese story well,fulfill social responsibilities,and establish a good image of Chinese enterprises in driving local employment,environmental protection and livelihood project construction.Under the new era of widespread attention to CSR and the rapid development of CSR movement around the world,CSR is not only related to the sustainable development of overseas investment,but also related to Chinese national image.Therefore,it is of great practical significance to clarify the impact and its mechanism of CSR on enterprises' OFDI,and then explore how to improve the CSR performance of Chinese multinational enterprises,build the soft power,and then promote Chinese enterprises to better "going out" and "going on".Under the above realistic background,based on the Hexun "listed companies CSR database" and the CSMAR "OFDI database",combined with theoretical and empirical analysis,and according to the idea of "going out-how to go-going on",this thesis focuses on the following three issues:(1)How does CSR affect the enterprises' OFDI scale?(2)How does CSR affect the overseas market entry mode?(3)How does CSR affect the overseas investment performance?Around the three issues studied in this thesis,this thesis has some innovation in the topic perspective and research content,which is specifically reflected as follows.Firstly,in terms of the topic perspective,the current research on CSR mostly focuses on the impact of CSR on the local economic behavior and consequences of enterprises.Individual studies focus on the impact of CSR on international behavior(export,M & A).The perspective is single and has not yet formed a system.For the research on enterprises' OFDI,the existing literatures mainly discuss the impact of macro and meso levels of host country characteristics,home country characteristics,institutional distance and industry,and less from the micro level of enterprises,and mainly focuses on the perspectives of financing constraints,productivity and senior management team characteristics.Individual literatures discuss the role of CSR in the process of overseas investment in the form of case analysis or descriptive statistics.Therefore,this thesis brings CSR and OFDI into a framework,and takes Chinese multinational enterprises as samples.Therefore,according to the logical mainline of "going out-how to go-going on",this thesis discusses the impact of CSR on the enterprises' OFDI scale,overseas market entry mode and overseas investment performance,which enriches the relevant research on the economic effect of CSR on the one hand,and expands the relevant research on the micro level influencing factors of OFDI on the other hand.Secondly,in terms of the applicable context,in the existing empirical research on CSR,scholars discuss the impact of moderation variables from external factors such as market environment,uncertainty of external environment and industry characteristics,and internal factors such as property right nature,product strategy and organizational redundancy.Some research ignores the moderation variables,resulting in inconsistent research conclusions.Institutional factors cannot be ignored in the research of CSR and OFDI.Most of the existing research takes institutional factors as explanatory variables to explore their impact on CSR or OFDI's decision-making and performance.This thesis introduces institutional factors(including institutional distance and institutional environment)into the research framework as moderation variables,and finds that different types of institutional distance have moderating effects in different directions,and the host country's institutional environment has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between CSR and overseas investment performance,this is contrary to some current research,which suggest that CSR is more effective in countries with weak institution.Through the discussion of the moderating effect,this thesis further clarifies the applicable situation and boundary conditions of the impact of CSR on OFDI.Thirdly,in terms of action mechanism,in the existing empirical research on CSR,scholars try to investigate the problem of mediating variables in order to open the "black box" between CSR and outcome variables,and explore the mechanisms of financing constraints,corporate reputation,marketing ability,technological innovation and so on.When analyzing the impact of CSR on enterprises' OFDI,this thesis investigates the mechanisms that CSR affects the OFDI scale through financing constraints and corporate productivity,CSR affects the overseas market entry mode through financing constraints and technological innovation,and CSR affects the overseas investment performance through corporate reputation,international certification and organizational stigma.On the one hand,this thesis further verifies that CSR affects corporate behavior and performance through mechanisms such as financing constraints,technological innovation and corporate reputation,which supports the conclusions of some current research.On the other hand,this thesis verifies that CSR affects corporate behavior and performance through mechanisms such as corporate productivity,international certification and organizational stigma that are less involved in existing research.Through the discussion of the mediating variables,this thesis further clarifies the internal mechanism of the impact of CSR on OFDI.The thesis consists of seven chapters.Firstly,based on the analysis of the realistic background and the combing of the existing research,the thesis puts forward the research issues from the urgency and necessity of the research theme and the shortcomings of the existing research.Secondly,combined with theoretical and empirical analysis,the thesis makes an in-depth and detailed discussion on the research issues.Finally,based on the research conclusions,this thesis puts forward targeted policy suggestions.The specific arrangement of each chapter of this thesis is as follows.Chapter 1 is the introduction,which mainly includes research background and significance,research objectives and contents,definition of core concepts,research ideas and methods,and possible innovations.Chapter 2is the theoretical basis and literature review,which mainly expounds the relevant theories of CSR and OFDI,combs the relevant literatures of CSR,OFDI and their relationship,and determines the starting point of this thesis on the basis of existing research.Chapter 3describes the current situation of CSR and OFDI in China.It describes the development of CSR and OFDI in general and structure,so as to provide a factual basis for this thesis.Chapter 4 is the impact of CSR on the enterprises' OFDI scale.Firstly,it theoretically analyzes the impact,boundary and mechanism of CSR on the enterprises' OFDI scale.Secondly,it constructs an econometric model,empirically tests the impact of CSR on the enterprises' OFDI scale with negative binomial regression,and makes heterogeneity analyses from the perspectives of equity nature,industry type,host country type and region.Then it examines the moderating effect of institutional distance on the relationship between CSR and the OFDI scale.Finally,it verifies the mechanism that CSR affects the OFDI scale through financing constraints and productivity.Chapter 5 is the impact of CSR on overseas market entry mode.Firstly,it theoretically analyzes the impact,boundary and mechanism of CSR on overseas market entry mode.Secondly,it constructs an econometric model,empirically tests the impact of CSR on overseas market entry mode with Logit Regression,and makes heterogeneity analyses from the perspectives of ownership nature,industry type,host country type and region.Then it examines the moderating effect of institutional distance and internationalization experience on the relationship between CSR and overseas market entry mode.Finally,it verifies the mechanism that CSR affects overseas market entry mode through financing constraints and technological innovation.Chapter 6 is the impact of CSR on overseas investment performance.Firstly,it theoretically analyzes the impact,boundary and mechanism of CSR on overseas investment performance.Secondly,it constructs an econometric model,empirically tests the impact of CSR on overseas investment performance with OLS regression,and makes heterogeneity analyses from the perspectives of entry mode,industry type and host country type.Then it examines the moderating effect of the host country's institutional environment on the relationship between CSR and overseas investment performance.Finally,it examines the mechanism that CSR affects overseas investment performance through reputation,international certification and organizational stigma.Chapter7 is the conclusions,suggestions and future research.Combined with theoretical and empirical analysis,the conclusions are as following:(1)CSR can significantly improve the enterprises' OFDI scale.The heterogeneity analyses show that the CSR of non-state-owned enterprises and sensitive industry enterprises plays a greater role in promoting the enterprises' OFDI scale;the CSR of enterprises investing in developed economies and enterprises located in the eastern region play a greater role in promoting the enterprises' OFDI scale.The moderating effect results show that legal institution distance and economic institution distance have a significant positive moderating effect on the relationship between CSR and the OFDI scale,while cultural institution distance has a significant negative moderating effect on the relationship between them.The results of mechanism test show that CSR can promote OFDI by financing constraints mitigation mechanism and productivity improvement mechanism.(2)CSR has a significant positive impact on the overseas market entry mode,that is,the higher level of CSR,the greater probability of overseas subsidiaries entering the host market in the sole proprietorship mode.The heterogeneity analyses show that the CSR of no-state-owned enterprises and manufacturing enterprises has a greater positive impact on the overseas market entry mode;the CSR of enterprises investing in developed economies and enterprises located in the eastern region has a greater positive impact on the overseas market entry mode.The moderating effect results show that the legal institution distance and economic institution distance do not affect the relationship between CSR and overseas market entry mode,the cultural institution distance negatively moderates the relationship between CSR and overseas market entry mode,and the internationalization experience positively moderates the relationship between CSR and overseas market entry mode.The mechanism test results show that CSR can affect the overseas market entry mode through financing constraint mitigation mechanism and technological innovation mechanism.(3)CSR can significantly improve the overseas investment performance of enterprises.The heterogeneity analyses show that when the enterprise enters the host country in the sole proprietorship mode or M & A,CSR has a greater effect on the improvement of overseas investment performance;the CSR of enterprises in direct contact with consumers and heavy pollution industries has a more significant impact on overseas investment performance;when enterprises invest in non “the Belt and Road” countries and the developed economies,CSR has a significant impact on overseas investment performance.The moderating effect results show that the legal and economic institutional environment of the host country plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between CSR and overseas investment performance.The mechanism test results show that CSR can improve the overseas investment performance by establishing a good corporate reputation,obtaining international standard certification and improving the organization stigma of the home country.