The Complexity of CEO Dark Traits: CEO Greed and Corporate Social Responsibility

This study investigates the impact of CEO greed on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Drawing insights from the existing literature on greed and CSR, we develop the argument that CEO greed exerts a heterogeneous impact on different CSR activities, namely technical CSR and institutional CSR, based on their engagement with different stakeholder groups. To further enhance our understanding of the variation in the focal relationship between CEO greed and technical (institutional) CSR, we investigate how state ownership moderates the relationships. Using a sample of 1,588 CEOs from Chinese-listed firms, we find support for the argument.