An Empirical Research On The Impacts Of Top Management Team Characteristics On Corporate Philanthropy

With the rapid progress of global economic integration, more and more limitations appear in traditional production factors that enhance the organization performances of firms. So the firms have to seek new economic growth points and development strategies. As an effective way to share corporate social responsibility, it is significant for firm to make contributions. In recent years, many scholars of domestic and foreign have studied on motivation and influencing factors of corporate philanthropy from different angles. In the research on influencing factors, there is no study on the impact of top management teams on corporate philanthropy. It is a significant contrast of the fact that top management teams play important roles in the management and making major decisions.This paper, based on the Upper Echelons Perspective, analyzes the impact of top management team characteristics on corporate philanthropy through secondhand data of listed firms. This paper examines the influence of five top management team characteristics variables on corporate philanthropy including the average age, average income, average education level, average tenure and the functional experience.Based on the theoretical and empirical studies, we find some conclusions:the average income and the functional experience with throughput orientations play important roles in the implementation of corporate philanthropy behavior. There are no significant impacts of average age, average education level and average tenure on corporate philanthropy. The average age, average income and the functional experience with throughput orientations play important roles in the size of corporate philanthropy.The framework of the paper as follows:The content of this paper is first summary the early research on corporate philanthropy and top management team characteristics.On the basis of theoretical analysis, we makes corresponding hypothesizes. This paper assumes that the average age, average salary, average education level, average tenure of top management teams have positive influence on the implementation of corporate philanthropy behavior and the size of corporate philanthropy. Besides, this paper assumes that the functional experience with throughput orientations has a negative influence on corporate philanthropy decision-making and the size of corporate philanthropy.In the course of the study, we chose the implementation of corporate philanthropy behavior and the size of corporate philanthropy as dependent variables. We chose the average age, average salary, average education level, average tenure, the functional experience with throughput orientations of top management teams as independent variables. The control variables as follow:the property of enterprise controller, ownership concentration, independent director ratio, liability/asset ratio, rate of return on common stockholders’ equity, time to market.The content of the fifth chapter is data analysis. In this chapter, by using descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis on343enterprises, examines the influence of five top management team characteristics variables on corporate philanthropy including the average age, average salary, average education level, average tenure and the functional experience with throughput orientations. Some results of empirical do not support hypotheses. We give some possible reasons.This study has certain exploratory of which academic contributions are embodied in the following aspects:From the research present, few scholars study on the relationship between top management team and corporate philanthropy. We analysis the impacts of top management teams characteristics on corporate philanthropy by measuring the cognitive levels and values of top management teams from perspective of demographic characteristic. This helps us to understand the underlying reasons for corporate philanthropy behavior.Based on the results of empirical studies, the average age of top management teams has no significant impact on the implementation of corporate philanthropy behavior. This is different from majority results of study on managers’ philanthropy. Besides, the average education level of top management teams has no significant impact on the implementation of corporate philanthropy behavior and the size of corporate philanthropy. This is also different from majority results of study on managers’ philanthropy.Above of the all are the research logic and main conclusions of the study. In addition, we list the disadvantages and limitations of the study in the last chapter.