Weichieh Su
University of Texas at Dallas
Weichieh Su is a doctoral candidate in Organization, Strategy, and International Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research interests include corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. His dissertation attempts to answer: (1) how do firms respond to socially oriented investment when they are in a downside position, (2) what determines MNEs engage in socially oriented activities in the host country, and (3) do firms adopting CSR practices send equivalance signal to investors across countries? His research on corporate governance has been published in the International Journal of Human Resource Management and Asia Pacific Journal of Management. He has lectures undergraduates International Business and Strategic Management at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Corporate philanthropy and aspiration performance: A vicious cycle
Drawing on the behavioral theory of the firm and stakeholder management, we argue that there is a vicious cycle between a firm's target financial performance and philanthropic investment. Specifically, when a firm's performance falls short of its aspiration level, which is set as its prior performance or peers' performance, the firm tends to shrink its philanthropic investment. But this self-centered decision will reduce the benefits derived from stakeholders and elicit negative responses, thus worsening the firm's subsequent downside position. Data of Fortune 500 firms during 1996-2003 provide empirical support for the above argument. Our results provide new insight into the relationship between corporate philanthropy and financial performance.