Shuili Du

Exploring the Social and Business Returns of a Corporate Oral Health Initiative Aimed at Disadvantaged Hispanic Families

This research investigates the impact of a corporate oral health initiative aimed at disadvantaged Hispanic families, especially the children. We find that the initiative promotes oral health behaviors only among less acculturated families. Moreover, it does so by both enhancing participant children’s beliefs about the physical and psychosocial benefits of oral health behaviors and strengthening the link between the psychosocial beliefs and behaviors. We also find that when parents of the participant children believe that the program has been beneficial to them, they are willing to engage in reciprocal behaviors, such as purchasing and supporting the corporate sponsor’s products.

Corporate social responsibility, multi-faceted job-products, and employee outcomes

This paper examines how employees react to their organizations’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Drawing upon research in internal marketing and psychological contract theories, we argue that employees have multi-faceted job needs (i.e., economic, developmental, and ideological needs) and that CSR programs comprise an important means to fulfill developmental and ideological job needs. Based on cluster analysis, we identify three heterogeneous employee segments, Idealists, Enthusiasts, and Indifferents, who vary in their multi-faceted job needs and, consequently, their demand for organizational CSR. We further find that an organization’s CSR programs generate favorable employee-related outcomes, such as job satisfaction and reduction in turnover intention, by fulfilling employees’ ideological and developmental job needs. Finally, we find that CSR proximity strengthens the positive impact of CSR on employee-related outcomes. This research reveals significant employee heterogeneity in their demand for organizational CSR and sheds new light on the underlying mechanisms linking CSR to employee-related outcomes. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

The Business Case for Sustainability Reporting: Evidence from Stock Market Reactions

Public policy makers seek to enhance disclosure of firms’ sustainability performance, yet firms debate about whether, or to what extent, they should engage in sustainability reporting. This article seeks to advance current understanding about the business returns to sustainability reporting by examining the short- and long-term investor reactions. Through an event study, this research documents significant short-term stock market reaction to the release of sustainability reports. In particular, abnormal stock returns around the release of such reports are positively related to firm sustainability performance, and this positive link is smaller for firms in a strong information environment. The results show that over the long term, relative to nonreporting firms, firms that release sustainability reports enjoy higher value relevance of sustainability performance. These findings suggest that sustainability reports enhance information transparency and allow investors to incorporate sustainability information in stock valuation. This study provides strong evidence for the business case of sustainability reporting, and offers important implications for public policy makers in terms of devising policies and regulations to promote sustainability reporting.

On the Effectiveness of CSR Communication: The Roles of Ethical Labels, Prior CSR Record, and Consumer Skepticism (An Abstract)

Companies increasingly communicate about their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. A key motivator for such communication efforts is that consumers demand to know more about companies’ CSR activities. At the same time, consumers tend to be skeptical toward companies’ CSR claims. Many consumers consider that companies engage in CSR communication mainly for image management—a practice referred to as greenwashing. In the broad context of consumer skepticism, finding ways to enhance the credibility of CSR communication is a question of critical importance.