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<p>Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) serves as a key legitimation strategy, and top management teams (TMTs) strongly shape CSR, how executives’ educational backgrounds drive their CSR decision-making from a legitimacy perspective, remains underexplored. Integrating upper echelon theory with the legitimacy view, we posit that executives with MBA degrees typically hold a “legitimacy-benefit” logic and seek legitimacy through CSR to maximize firm profits. Conversely, executives with legal degrees often embrace an “illegitimacy-penalty” logic, employing CSR as a means to bolster legitimacy and minimize firm risk. We further propose a complementary yet distinct nature for the relationship between the two logics. On the one hand, a complementary interaction exists between the two types of educational background in influencing CSR, such that TMT MBA degree acts as an “accelerator” to the influence of TMT legal degree, while TMT legal degree serves as a “buffer” to the effect of TMT MBA degree. On the other hand, the motivational distinctiveness is examined by testing the moderating effects of individual experience, both in the spatial dimension (TMT international experience) and the temporal dimension (TMT age). Specifically, TMT international experience plays a positive moderating role; while TMT age negatively moderates the relationship between TMT MBA degree and CSR, it positively moderates the link between TMT legal degree and CSR. Drawing on a sample comprised of 637 firms and 4296 observations from an emerging market (2010–2019), we obtain substantial supportive evidence.</p>

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Seeking Legitimacy as Benefits or for Avoiding Penalties? TMT Educational Background and Corporate Social Responsibility

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月30日

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  • Xiaoming He,
  • Zehui Liu,
  • Xiaoyu Liao

摘要

Although corporate social responsibility (CSR) serves as a key legitimation strategy, and top management teams (TMTs) strongly shape CSR, how executives’ educational backgrounds drive their CSR decision-making from a legitimacy perspective, remains underexplored. Integrating upper echelon theory with the legitimacy view, we posit that executives with MBA degrees typically hold a “legitimacy-benefit” logic and seek legitimacy through CSR to maximize firm profits. Conversely, executives with legal degrees often embrace an “illegitimacy-penalty” logic, employing CSR as a means to bolster legitimacy and minimize firm risk. We further propose a complementary yet distinct nature for the relationship between the two logics. On the one hand, a complementary interaction exists between the two types of educational background in influencing CSR, such that TMT MBA degree acts as an “accelerator” to the influence of TMT legal degree, while TMT legal degree serves as a “buffer” to the effect of TMT MBA degree. On the other hand, the motivational distinctiveness is examined by testing the moderating effects of individual experience, both in the spatial dimension (TMT international experience) and the temporal dimension (TMT age). Specifically, TMT international experience plays a positive moderating role; while TMT age negatively moderates the relationship between TMT MBA degree and CSR, it positively moderates the link between TMT legal degree and CSR. Drawing on a sample comprised of 637 firms and 4296 observations from an emerging market (2010–2019), we obtain substantial supportive evidence.