Abstract:

While micro-CSR literature has made a remarkable process to understand how a singular CEO identity (e.g., demographic or psychological identities, such as tenure or narcissism) affects corporate social responsibility (CSR), we still know very little about how CEO intrapersonal identity heterogeneity impacts CSR despite the fact CEOs hold multiple identities simultaneously. Drawing on social identity theory, we argue that CEOs holding multiple identities simultaneously can not only challenge CEOs’ cognitive abilities, but also result in incongruencies in complex decision making. Accordingly, we hypothesize that CEO intrapersonal identity heterogeneity can lead to internal ambiguity thereby negatively affecting firms’ CSR performance. Using a novel language-based approach to capture CEO intrapersonal identity heterogeneity on a sample of S&P 1500 firms between 2005 and 2021, we find empirical support for our hypotheses. We also uncover the importance of gender as a critical moderating variable such that female CEOs with high intrapersonal identity heterogeneity outperform their male counterparts in mitigating the negative association between intrapersonal identity heterogeneity and CSR. Our findings highlight the relevance of the multiplicity of identities within top management for micro-CSR research.

Please choose your submission type: Full Paper

Primary Track: Sustainable and Responsible Business

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Mr. Jiangtao Xie