Chinese CEOs’ Socialist Political Ideology and Corporate Social Responsibility Commitments

The emerging research on CEO political ideology is predominantly conducted in capitalist, democratic countries such as the United States. However, it is unclear whether the findings can be readily generalizable to socialist countries like China, because (1) the liberalism – conservatism axis may fall short in describing Chinese political ideology (socialism with Chinese characteristics), and (2) the commonly used proxy of political donation is irrelevant in China whose single ruling party (the Communist Party of China, CPC) does not need election campaigns or personal donations. We used CPC membership as a proxy of Chinese political ideology and studied its relationship with corporate social responsibility (CSR) using a randomized national sample of 1,970 Chinese private companies. We found that CPC member CEOs spent more in employee benefits, corporate philanthropy, and environmental protection. The relationship was stronger when CEOs had political connections, their companies had a higher portion of CPC...