Motivated to be socially responsible? CEO regulatory focus, firm performance, and corporate social responsibility
研究CEO的调节焦点（促进型或预防型）如何与企业财务绩效共同影响其推动企业社会责任的动机，发现绩效高于期望时促进型CEO更积极，低于期望时预防型CEO更积极。
• We merge CEO and organizational mechanisms into overarching theoretical framework to explain CEOs' CSR motivation. • Companies with promotion-focused (Prevention-focused) CEO engage in less (more) CSR. • Promotion-focused CEOs are motivated to engage in CSR when CFP is above aspirations. • Prevention-focused CEOs pursue CSR when CFP falls short of aspirations but lose motivation when it exceeds. This study examines the interactive effect of CEOs’ regulatory focus and corporate financial performance (CFP) on the firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR). While prior research has examined the influence of CEOs’ psychological attributes on CSR, less attention has been devoted to understanding how the firms’ CFP impacts this relationship. Drawing on regulatory focus theory and the behavioral theory of the firm, we integrate these CEO-level and organizational-level mechanisms into an overarching theoretical framework that explains when and how CEOs are motivated to engage in CSR. We propose that promotion-focused (prevention-focused) CEOs will engage in CSR when CFP is above (below) aspirations but disengage from CSR when CFP is below (above) aspirations. We find partial support for these hypotheses using a sample of 1,250 U.S. firms.