Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Canada

The motivational foundations of corporate social strategies for poverty alleviation

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Abstract

We seek to improve current understanding of the micro-foundations of corporate social performance by investigating how motivations underpin the choice of social strategies for poverty alleviation. We introduce a theoretical model for explaining differences in social performance across firms, but also their choice of social strategies that lead to trade-offs and complementarities between social and financial performance. We generate a range of hypotheses on how the spectrum of motivation types – which range from purely intrinsic to purely economic – underpin different choices of social strategies. We distinguish between instrumental strategies that are primarily driven by economic motives, engagement strategies that are underpinned by intrinsic motives, but also deeper forms of engagement that result from mixed motives. While instrumental strategies have direct economic effect but indirect social impact, engagement strategies have direct social impact but indirect economic effect. We use a unique dataset of 430 socially active SMEs that operate in seven Sub-Saharan African countries to provide empirical support to our theoretical arguments.

Key words: Social performance; social strategies; intrinsic motives; economic motives; instrumental strategies; engagement strategies

Biography

Addisu Lashitew is a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability in Beedie School of Business of Simon Fraser University. Addisu Lashitew holds a PhD degree in Economics from the University of Groningen, and an MSc degree in Environmental Sustainability form Wageningen University (both in The Netherlands). After the conclusion of his PhD, Addisu Lashitew worked as post-doctoral researcher at Rotterdam School of Management in Erasmus University. In his current and previous research positions, Addisu has studied corporate environmental and social sustainability strategies in Base of the Pyramid (developing) economies. Addisu draws on his expertise in development economics to enrich current understanding on the processes and outcomes of corporate sustainability strategies. Addisu’s research covers various aspects of sustainable development and has been published in business and economics journals such as World Development, International Business Review, and Journal of Business Ethics.