The influence of internationalization on firm corporate social performance

Abstract

Recently, previous literature has paid special attention to study the relationship between firm internationalization and corporate social responsibility. In this research we examine the impact of internationalization on corporate social performance. Using a sample of 102 U.S. firms from the chemical, energy and industrial machinery industries, our results show that not all the dimensions of internationalization lead firms to enhance their level of social performance. Specifically, we can see that, whereas percentage of sales in foreign markets and cultural international diversification help firms to improve their level of social performance (complying with the different stakeholders’ social needs in each country where they operate), geographical international diversification is not related to corporate social performance. Thus, the number of geographical areas is not an important issue, but the degree of cultural international diversification between these areas what really influences firms’ corporate social performance. We discuss important implications for academia, managers and policy-makers as well.

Keywords

• U.S. firms
• chemical industry
• energetic industry
• industrial machinery industry
• geographical and cultural international diversification