An emerging form of political connections and private SMEs’ CSR in China

Chinese ongoing transformation offers a rich context for driven research of private enterprises’ corporate social responsibility (CSR). In the emerging economic with institutional voids, we develop an institutional theoretical framework to explain how the firm level political connection affects the small-medium enterprises’ CSR. We also elaborate how the effect of firm-level party committee on CSR is influenced by the presence of trade union and the economic development and marketization among three parts of China. Our study empirically develops and tests three hypotheses using secondary data from Chinese private enterprise survey (CPES). The results show that establishing FPC significantly increases SMEs’ CSR. FPC’s positive effect on employee-related CSR is more significant in SMEs with trade unions while its effect on SMEs is not affected by the level of economic development and marketization in the region where these enterprises are located. Finally, our theoretical contributions, practical implications, limitations and directions for future research are discussed.