Analyst Attention, Employee Social Comparison, and Corporate Charitable Donations

Abstract

Abstract: The existing researches generally emphasize the role of stakeholders in promoting corporate social responsibility practices, while ignoring the potential conflicts among different stakeholders regarding corporate social responsibilities. When the external stakeholders (analysts) and the internal stakeholders (employees) of a company hold conflicting attitudes towards corporate donations, what changes do corporate charitable donations make? The empirical analysis of Chinese listed companies from 2006 to 2018 shows that although the analyst community is increasingly concerned about and anticipating the charitable performance of enterprises, when the internal employees find that their income is“treated harshly”through social comparison, they will develop a resistance attitude towards corporate donations. In this situation, enterprises will balance the internal and external interest demands to adjust donation amounts. The income gap between employees and corporate executive teams, as well as the income gap with the peers (the employees in the same industry and region), will both significantly weaken the positive impact of analyst attention on corporate donations. The above research conclusions reveal the potential conflicts in corporate social responsibility attitudes among different stakeholders and the triggering mechanisms of employee social comparison, which is beneficial for promoting the researches on corporate social responsibilities under the influence of heterogeneous stakeholder interactions.

Key words: stakeholder, corporate philanthropy, analyst attention, employee compensation, social comparison

CLC Number:

F279.23

WU Wei, GE Jian-hua. Analyst Attention, Employee Social Comparison, and Corporate Charitable Donations[J]. Contemporary Finance & Economics, 2024, 0(3): 97-110.

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