Assistant Professors Jongwan Bae and Hannah Oh鈥檚 research was published in Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management.
Jongwan Bae, assistant professor of finance, and Hannah Oh, assistant professor of marketing, co-authored an article exploring whether cumulated corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts increase the likelihood of engaging in a voluntary product recall.
In the article in the journal Corporate Social Responsibility and Environment Management, Bae, Oh and co-authors Sang-Joon Kim, Ewha Women鈥檚 University, and Ryan Choi, Eastern Michigan University, explain that despite incurring financial costs and the negative consequences of product recall, and even without any positive outcomes from a voluntary recall, some firms voluntarily conduct product recalls to actively assume responsibility whereas other firms conduct product recall involuntarily, as a last resort to product鈥恏arm crisis after a widespread scandal.
The authors also examine the moderating effect of board characteristics that give a sense of ownership to board members in increasing socially responsible firm鈥檚 engagement in the voluntary recall.
鈥淚n this study,鈥 write the authors, 鈥渨e find that a firm’s responsible behavior (i.e., voluntary product recalls) can be governed by the cumulatively constructed reputation of the firm’s various responsible behaviors (i.e., cumulated CSR efforts).鈥 Additionally, 鈥渨e claim that a firm’s responsible behavior, product recall in this case, can be reinforced by its history of CSR engagement, which is amplified by the sense of ownership of the board of directors who are more likely to pursue a legacy.鈥
The Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management journal focuses on research and environmental responsibilities in the context of sustainable development and provides a resource for organizations interested in developing tools and case studies to improve their performance and accountability in these areas.