Volume 27, Issue 4 p. 1719-1728
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Corporate social responsibility and employee behavior: Evidence from mediation and moderation analysis

Jintao Lu

Corresponding Author

Jintao Lu

Department of Business Administration, School of Economics and Management, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, China

Research Center for Corporate Social Responsibility, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, China

Correspondence

Jintao Lu, Department of Business Administration, School of Economics and Management, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, China.

Email: lut2002@163.com

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Licheng Ren

Licheng Ren

Department of Business Administration, School of Economics and Management, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, China

Research Center for Corporate Social Responsibility, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, China

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Chong Zhang

Chong Zhang

Department of Business Administration, School of Economics and Management, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, China

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Chunyan Wang

Chunyan Wang

Department of Business Administration, School of Economics and Management, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan, China

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Rizwan R. Ahmed

Rizwan R. Ahmed

Faculty of Management Sciences, Indus University, Karachi, Pakistan

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Justas Streimikis

Justas Streimikis

Division of Farms and Enterprises Economics, Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics, Vilnius, Lithuania

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First published: 27 February 2020
Citations: 41

Funding information: This work was supported by the Program for the Innovative Talents of Higher Education Institutions of Shanxi (PTIT), Grant/Award Number: 20191043; the Planning Program for Philosophy and Social Sciences of Shanxi, Grant/Award Number: W20191020; Key R&D Program of Shanxi Province, China (Social Development), Grant/Award Number: 201903D321004; Taiyuan University of Science & Technology Scientific Research Initial Funding (TYUST SRIF), Grant/Award Numbers: W20182014, W20192003

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a prominent subject due to its major implication for the practitioners in the corporate arena. Based on the theory of engagement, theory of social exchange, and theory of social identity, a conceptual framework was established in this study to evaluate the employee engagement (EE), and organizational commitment (OC) as a resultant of CSR initiatives. The study further examined the impact of distributive justice (DJ), procedural justice (PJ), and job satisfaction (JS) as mediating variables, and the influence of collectivism (COL) as a moderating variable between CSR initiatives and OC and EE. Data from 989 employees of the Pakistani pharmaceutical industry was collected and analyzed using the structural equation modeling and exploratory and confirmatory inferential models. Results demonstrate that CSR initiatives have a significant positive impact on OC and EE. Similarly, the mediation of JS, PJ, and DJ was established between the exogenous and the endogenous variables. Finally, the COL has a significant impact as a moderating variable between CSR initiatives, and OC and EE. The conclusions obtained in this study provide significantly practical and theoretical implications for managers of involved firms to improve employee behavior, mold employee attitude, and enhance organizational performance via CSR strategy, especially for firms located in countries along the route of belt and road initiative.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

“The authors declared no conflict of interest.”

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