管理评论 ›› 2023, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (2): 252-267.

• 组织与战略管理 • 上一篇    下一篇

企业的捐赠水平与捐赠能力相关吗?——来自自由现金流量创造力视角的证据

谢德仁1, 宋子威1, 刘劲松2   

  1. 1. 清华大学经济管理学院, 北京 100084;
    2. 四川大学商学院, 成都 610064
  • 收稿日期:2021-10-29 出版日期:2023-02-28 发布日期:2023-03-27
  • 通讯作者: 刘劲松(通讯作者),四川大学商学院助理研究员,博士
  • 作者简介:谢德仁,清华大学经济管理学院教授,博士生导师,博士;宋子威,清华大学经济管理学院博士研究生。
  • 基金资助:
    清华大学经济管理学院研究基金项目(2020051009);清华大学中国现代国企研究院研究基金项目(iSOEYB202102);2022年建设世界一流大学经费-提升自主创新和社会服务能力管理科学与国家治理(20502044C3001)。

Are Donation Amounts by a Firm Related to Its Donation Capacity? Evidence from Free Cash Flow Creativity

Xie Deren1, Song Ziwei1, Liu Jinsong2   

  1. 1. School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084;
    2. Business School, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064
  • Received:2021-10-29 Online:2023-02-28 Published:2023-03-27

摘要: 本文采用自由现金流量创造力来度量企业捐赠能力,并基于A股公司数据研究了企业捐赠能力、捐赠动机与捐赠行为之间的关系。结果发现:(1)非国有企业的捐赠能力与捐赠水平负相关,且在其寻求政企关系和利益交换的动机更强时更显著;(2)在捐赠能力强劲的国有企业中,捐赠水平与捐赠能力正相关,且在其受到更严格的内外部监督时更显著;(3)非国企在缺乏捐赠能力下的捐赠行为具有资源交换效应,而国企的捐赠行为则没有类似效应。本文的发现意味着,非国有企业的捐赠行为更多受策略性利己动机而非捐赠能力的影响,而国有企业的捐赠行为则更加量力而行。

关键词: 自由现金流量, 捐赠能力, 捐赠动机

Abstract: This paper adopts free cash flow creativity to proxy for a firm's donation capacity and examines the association between firm's donation capacity and donation amount in China. We argue that strategic donation motivations contribute to the deviations between firm donation amounts and donation capacity, and thus different donation motivations between SOEs and non-SOEs lead to different associations between firm donation capacity and donation amount. Consistent with our argument, we find that non-SOEs with lower free cash flow creativity donate more and this negative relationship is more significant when non-SOEs have stronger incentives to maintain political connections and more likely obtain benefits from government. Second, we document a positive association between firm's donation capacity and donation amounts in SOEs with strong free cash flow creativity. This positive relationship is more significant when SOEs are under the strict internal and external supervision. Lastly, non-SOEs with insufficient donation capacity obtain more accesses to economic resources through donation, as evidenced by more government subsidies and credit preferences, while SOEs do not. Our findings suggest that non-SOEs' donations are dominated more by strategic motivations than by donation capacity, while SOEs' donations are mainly driven by social responsibility motivations. Overall, our study adds to the growing literature on firm donation behavior and helps stakeholders to better understand the intrinsic logic of corporate donation behavior in China.

Key words: free cash flow, donation capacity, donation motivation