TY - JOUR

T1 - The hunt for international legitimacy

T2 - Examining the relationship between internationalization, state ownership, location and CSR reporting of Russian firms

AU - Aray, Yulia

AU - Dikova, Desislava

AU - Garanina, Tatiana

AU - Veselova, Anna

N1 - Aray, Y. The hunt for international legitimacy: Examining the relationship between internationalization, state ownership, location and CSR reporting of Russian firms / Y. Aray, D. Dikova, T. Garanina, A. Veselova // International Business Review. - 2021. - Volume 30, Issue 5. - URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969593121000652?via%3Dihub Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Elsevier Ltd

PY - 2021/10/1

Y1 - 2021/10/1

N2 - This paper explores the relationship between internationalization and corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication in Russian firms. Our baseline argument is that internationalization positively affects CSR reporting, as it is expected to enhance the legitimacy of Russian firms abroad. We examine the role of state ownership, and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) vs. non-CIS location, as two boundary conditions on the relationship between internationalization and CSR reporting. We test our hypotheses on panel data of 223 large Russian firms for the period 2012–2017, collected from company annual reports, databases, and official company websites. Our data include financial and non-financial indicators, and firm-level organizational characteristics. The results reveal the context specificity of CSR reporting. We find that state ownership moderates the relationship between internationalization and CSR reporting in CIS and non-CIS markets differently, and the positive effect is stronger for non-CIS locations. Our study goes beyond the traditional approach, treating CSR reporting as a unidimensional construct. We show that the effect of internationalization, both direct and moderated, differs for the different types of CSR activity.

AB - This paper explores the relationship between internationalization and corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication in Russian firms. Our baseline argument is that internationalization positively affects CSR reporting, as it is expected to enhance the legitimacy of Russian firms abroad. We examine the role of state ownership, and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) vs. non-CIS location, as two boundary conditions on the relationship between internationalization and CSR reporting. We test our hypotheses on panel data of 223 large Russian firms for the period 2012–2017, collected from company annual reports, databases, and official company websites. Our data include financial and non-financial indicators, and firm-level organizational characteristics. The results reveal the context specificity of CSR reporting. We find that state ownership moderates the relationship between internationalization and CSR reporting in CIS and non-CIS markets differently, and the positive effect is stronger for non-CIS locations. Our study goes beyond the traditional approach, treating CSR reporting as a unidimensional construct. We show that the effect of internationalization, both direct and moderated, differs for the different types of CSR activity.

KW - CSR communication

KW - CSR reporting

KW - Internationalization

KW - Legitimacy theory

KW - Russia

KW - State ownership

KW - ORGANIZATIONAL LEGITIMACY

KW - REPUTATION

KW - INVESTMENT MOTIVES

KW - INDUSTRY

KW - CORPORATE SOCIAL-RESPONSIBILITY

KW - PERFORMANCE

KW - RISK

KW - CHINESE

KW - COMPANIES

KW - ENVIRONMENTAL DISCLOSURES

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105001946&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/ec4d4fcb-089f-3522-9430-2d2f3d7a1757/

U2 - 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2021.101858

DO - 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2021.101858

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85105001946

VL - 30

JO - International Business Review

JF - International Business Review

SN - 0969-5931

IS - 5

M1 - 101858

ER -