earticle

영어

The relationship between national distance and the CSR activity of MNE subsidiaries remains controversial. From an economic point of view, the greater the distance, the more actively companies in host countries need to engage in social responsibility activities to overcome “external responsibility”. Behaviorism theory, on the other hand, asserts that the greater the distance, the lower the CSR activity of the host country. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effect of various types of geographical distance between countries on the CSR activities of subsidiaries of multinational corporations. In addition, this study investigates whether the distance between subsidiaries and local governments also plays a role, and further analyzes the moderating effect of language barriers and pollution industries. The study results are as follows. The results of this study confirm that there is an overall negative correlation between the geographic distance between countries and the CSR activities of multinational companies. Second, as a result of comparing various types of geographic distance, this study confirms that the distance between the geographic center of China and the multinational corporation’s home country is the optimal solution. Finally, this study confirms that multinational corporations engaged in industries that cause pollution are more actively engaged in social responsibility activities. The limitations of this study are as follows. First, the determinants of CSR activities vary by country, region, and community, and financial data such as corporate cash flows, advertising spending, and debt all play an important role. However, it was difficult to obtain such data because the subsidiaries of multinational corporations are not separately listed companies. Second, the results of this study reflect China’s characteristics, where the territory is vast and the central government has strong influence. Therefore, there may be limitations in generalization in that it is difficult to apply the results of this study to other countries.