Military experience and corporate social responsibility: evidence from china

In this paper, we investigate how moral attitudes across top executives are related to CSR practices. We find that firms run by military executives are significantly more likely to engage in CSR activities. Specifically, military executives have a moral obligation to place extra weight on caring for shareholders and staff and protecting customers and suppliers' rights and the environment, while military experience has little influence on the firms' social contributions. These effects appear to be more pronounced in sinful firms, firms with longer tenured executives, and non-SOE firms. Overall, this study adds evidence to the growing literature regarding the influence of top executives' personal characteristics on corporate outcomes, as well as enriching the knowledge about firms' business practices in light of CSR.