Behavioral Motives and Influence Mechanism of Overseas Chinese Enterprises’Social Responsibility

Abstract

In recent years, the "Belt and Road" initiative has effectively promoted foreign investment by Chinese enterprises, resulting in exponential growth in their total number each year. However, due to a lack of awareness and experience in fulfilling corporate social responsibility (CSR), many overseas Chinese enterprises face obstacles and risks, and even suffer failure in the end. Drawing on institutional theory and resource-based theory, this research examines the behavioral motives of Chinese enterprises when undertaking overseas CSR and the impact of the institutional environment of the host country on their CSR strategies by utilizing SPSS22.0 and Stata13.0. The findings of the research show that: The institutional environment quality of the host country positively influences Chinese enterprises' choice to undertake environmental and employee responsibility as part of their CSR initiatives, while it negatively influences their choice to adopt philanthropic responsibility: State-owned equity has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the institutional environment quality of the host country and Chinese enterprises' adoption of philanthropic responsibility, and a negative moderating effect on their adoption of employee responsibility as part of their CSR initiatives. However, the moderating effect on the relationship between the institutional environment and environmental responsibility behavior is not significant.These findings have important managerial implications for Chinese enterprises undertaking CSR initiatives overseas and offer guidance and direction for future theoretical research in this field.