Pushpika Vishwanathan
Erasmus University
Theoretically Meaningful but Economically Unsustainable: The Case of Political CSR
Using advanced meta-analytic techniques on a sample of 105 primary studies performed in 23 different countries, this study provides an empirical analysis of the institutional contingencies that shape the CSR-CFP relationship. After identifying three different types of institutional pressures on CSR — i.e.instrumental, political and isomorphic pressures — we find that firms only experience positive financial returns in institutional contexts where CSR serves either strategic or legitimizing purposes. In contrast, firms engaging in CSR in institutional contexts that elicit a more political approach suffer significantly negative performance consequences. Ironically, these findings both support the conceptual distinction of political CSR as a separate type of CSR, and question its longer-term sustainability as a corporate strategy.
Biography
Pushpika Vishwanathan (1986) is a fourth year PhD candidate in the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. She obtained her MSc in Philosophy and Business Research (with distinction) as well as her BSc in Business Administration from the Rotterdam School of Management. Her dissertation research is on corporate governance and stakeholder management. She has studied philanthropic organizations and their stakeholder management challenges using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. She has also conducted multiple studies on the financial effects of a firm’s CSR activities as well as their corporate misconduct. Her research has been presented in several international conferences such as the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business, and the European Group for Organization Studies. In 2010 her paper was published in the AoM’s Best Papers Proceedings. In 2011 she was awarded as the Best Review for the Social Issues in Management Division, and she has also been nominated for the best paper award by the European AoM.