Examining the financial slack–corporate social performance relationship across countries: The influence of formal institutions
研究财务松弛与企业社会绩效的关系如何受国家正式制度（政府诚信、劳动自由、金融自由）影响，基于38国企业数据，帮助跨国企业理解不同制度环境下如何利用财务松弛提升社会绩效。
Research on the relationship between financial slack and corporate social performance (CSP) provides ambiguous findings and is context-dependent. This study employs institutional theory to address this ambiguity and theorizes how formal institutions influence the relationship between financial slack and CSP. We argue that the relationship between financial slack and CSP is not per se positive or negative but depends on critical formal institutions, namely, government integrity, labor freedom, and financial freedom. Formal institutions define a country's incentive structures and, therefore, affect firms' decisions to allocate financial slack to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, which impact CSP in turn. Our findings are based on a large dataset of firms across 38 countries. Our multilevel study expands prior research on the financial slack-CSP relationship by demonstrating how the relationship depends on the formal institutional context. Moreover, we contribute to international business research by illustrating how formal institutions in different countries provide incentive structures for firms to allocate financial slack to CSR activities. Finally, our study offers practical implications for firms aiming to improve their CSP and whose operations reach across different country-specific formal institutions across the globe.