Business social norms from overseas and corporate social responsibility performance: evidence from China

This study examines the link between foreign business norms and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in China. Using the information of directors' foreign background, we find that firms which hire directors with social norms from overseas engage more in CSR, and specifically realize better performance of shareholder responsibility, employee caring, supplier-customer relation, and environment protection. The positive relation is especially significant when directors' foreign social norms obtained from high ranking CSR countries. Furthermore, firms hiring directors with social norms from overseas are more likely to have larger increase in their firm value. In addition, firms without directors with foreign social norms do better in the responsibility of charity, which does not have a significantly positive improvement on their firm value. These findings suggest that standard social norms from overseas are associated with positive CSR performance, and not at the expense of firm value.