Being politically connected: corporate charitable giving before and after the 2016 Charity Law
Abstract
Purpose
Charitable giving in China has moved from being subjected to government attention and public skepticism to receiving government encouragement and public support. The role played by political connections in philanthropy is indisputable, although very few studies have explored their association from the perspective of the country’s first Charity Law of 2016. This study aims to contribute to the ongoing debate about the 2016 Charity Law and offers an understanding of the future trends in corporate charitable giving.
Design/methodology/approach
Using empirical analysis of data collected from listed companies in China, this study analyzes the impact of political connections on corporate charitable giving before and after the 2016 Charity Law. The study adopts three leading theories from previous research into corporate charitable giving and political connections: corporate social responsibility, resource dependence theory and stakeholder theory. A conceptual framework is outlined, and hypotheses are formulated accordingly.
Findings
The results show that political connections have a substantial positive impact on corporate charitable giving, both before and after the implementation of the 2016 Charity Law, which has significantly promoted and increased the amount and proportion of charitable giving. Although the 2016 Charity Law attempted to weaken the political connections of enterprises, the influence of political connections on corporate charitable giving has proved difficult to diminish or eliminate, as charity is dominated by the state.
Originality/value
This study explores the association between political connections and corporate charitable giving from the perspective of China’s Charity Law of 2016.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and editors of Chinese Management Studies for their insightful comments, valuable feedback, and constructive suggestions, which significantly contributed to the improvement of this manuscript. Their expertise and dedication are deeply appreciated.
Funding: This study was supported by the Chunhui Plan Cooperative Scientific Research Project of Ministry of Education, People’s Republic of China.
Disclosure statement: The author has nothing to disclose.
Data availability: The data sets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Competing interests: The author declares no competing interests.
Ethical statements: This paper does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.
Informed consent: This paper does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.
Citation
Ji, M., Deng, D. and Li, G. (2024), "Being politically connected: corporate charitable giving before and after the 2016 Charity Law", Chinese Management Studies, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/CMS-01-2023-0047
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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