Since the mid-1990s, the corporate philanthropy has risen as an important issue in Korean company. According to a survey on corporate philanthropy by the Federation of Korean Industries(FKI), the donation expenditure of Korean companies surveyed has b...
Since the mid-1990s, the corporate philanthropy has risen as an important issue in Korean company. According to a survey on corporate philanthropy by the Federation of Korean Industries(FKI), the donation expenditure of Korean companies surveyed has been increased consistently. However they have not enjoyed the heights of positive public reaction, which are usually expected.
In this respect, this study investigates the relationship between corporate philanthropy and financial performance focused on the moderating effects of strategic factors of corporate philanthropy and corporate social legitimacy factors. There are many studies that discuss how corporate philanthropy activities influence on corporate financial performance. But they have not reached at a clear conclusion and the issue is still on debate. Differences in existing research outputs may have resulted from only focusing simple causality test between corporate philanthropy and financial performance. But actually the relationship between corporate philanthropy and financial performance is more complicated, so this study is to empirically verify various moderating variables.
With a review of the previous literature as its base, we have classified moderating variables into two groups: strategic factors of corporate philanthropy and corporate social legitimacy factors. And then we have developed 3 moerating variables in each groups. First, in strategic factors of corporate philanthropy, corporate philanthropy activities' relatedness to business, business fitness for philanthropy, and public relations of the corporate philanthropy activities are developed. Second, in corporate social legitimacy factors, company's ethic management, monopoly image, and environmental pollution level are developed.
In this study we also layed groundwork for the analysis of corporate philanthropy by measuring the all philanthropy activities of corporate, those are composed of donation expenditure, charity activities, employ volunteer activities etc. Actually various charity activities and employ volunteer activities are becoming the larger part of corporate social contribution activities than donation expenditure according to FKI survey.
For the empirical study, we conduct survey of 111 Korean companies' philanthropy activities and financial performance. The empirical analysis has been done with the hierarchical regression analysis in order to test various moderating effects using the SPSS package. As the results of analysis, we have found 4 moderating variables to have moderating effects on the relationship between corporate philanthropy and financial performance. The research results are summarized as follows.
With regard to the hypothesis 1, we tested the relationship between corporate philanthropy and financial performance empirically. As a result, it is revealed that financial performance has positive(+) relationship with corporate philanthropy. And with regard to the hypothesis 2~4, we tested the moderating effects of strategic philanthropy factors on the relationship between corporate philanthropy and financial performance. As a result, it is revealed that if philanthropy activities' relatedness to business and business fitness for philanthropy are high, the influence of corporate philanthropy on financial performance is increased. That is, philanthropy activities' relatedness to business and business fitness for philanthropy have positive(+) moderating effects. But the public relations of corporate philanthropy activities has no moderating effect differently from hypothesis 3. This result could be because we measured corporate philanthropy and financial performance of only one year. As the results of hypothesis 2~4 test, we have found that corporate philanthropy's business relatedness and business fitness to the corporate philanthropy are more important than the public relations in short-term at least.
And with regard to the hypothesis 5~7, we tested the moderating effect of corporate legitimacy factors on the relationship between corporate philanthropy and financial performance. As a result, it is revealed that if corporate's ethic management level and monopoly image are high, the influence of corporate philanthropy on financial performance is increased. But the corporate's environmental pollution has no moderating effect differently from hypothesis 7. This result could be also because we measured corporate philanthropy and financial performance of only one year. If we have measured corporate philanthropy and financial performance of many years, the results could be changed and support hypothesis 7.
From the results of this study, we could suggest one clear proposal for Korean company that is in accordance with the changed paradigm of corporate philantrophy. Companies must develop philantrophy programs that are related to corporate business rather than making regular donations to charity or other nonprofit organizations. Especially, companies need to conduct philantrophy activities that are related to the characteristics of their major products or to a corporation's mission and ideology, in order to effectively promote their brand and to communicate a corporation's mission and ideology to several stakeholders.