Xinyu Zhang

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is widely regarded as a hallmark of organizational excellence, leading many firms to actively engage in CSR initiatives. While prior micro-level CSR research predominantly highlights its positive influences on stakeholders, we extend this perspective by examining a potential downside within the gig platforms context. We argue that perceived platform CSR toward customers may create an adverse spillover effect that compromises the quality of gig workers’ service delivery. Drawing on relative deprivation theory, we propose that perceived platform CSR toward customers is positively associated with gig workers’ perceptions of relative deprivation, which in turn undermines the quality of their service delivery. We further argue that perceived platform CSR toward gig workers attenuates this relationship, whereas algorithmic monitoring exacerbates it. Our hypotheses are supported by an experimental study involving 200 gig workers (Study 1) and a three-wave field study with 461 gig workers (Study 2). The findings enrich the micro-level CSR literature by revealing its potential negative effects and provide critical insights for platform-based businesses on how to effectively balance stakeholder interests in CSR strategies.

As an important corporate governance mechanism, directors’ and officers’ liability insurance is theoretically associated with corporate financialization because it directly affects incentive constraints and risk preference of enterprise managers. However, whether there is a causal relationship in fact has not been sufficiently empirically investigated. Using a sample of Chinese non-financial listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2008 to 2020, this paper empirically analyzes how corporate subscription to directors’ and officers’ liability insurance affects corporate financialization and examines the mediating role played by risk-taking, financing constraints, and audit quality. The study finds that corporate subscription to D&O insurance increases corporate financialization. In terms of the influential mechanism, subscription to D&O insurance promotes financialization by increasing risk-taking, alleviating financing constraints, and improving audit quality. In addition, the results in the heterogeneity analysis suggest that the promotion of financialization by subscribing to D&O insurance is more significant in state-owned enterprises, growth and decline stage enterprises, and non-dual-employment enterprises.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations need to effectively manage changes, and employees need to proactively adapt to these changes. The present research investigated when and how individual employees’ narcissism was related to their change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Specifically, based on a trait activation perspective, this research proposed the hypotheses that individual employees’ narcissism and environmental uncertainty would interactively influence employees’ change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior via felt responsibility for constructive change; furthermore, the effect of narcissism on change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior via felt responsibility for constructive change would be stronger when the environmental uncertainty prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic was high rather than low. Two studies were conducted to test these hypotheses: an online survey of 180 employees in mainland China and a field study of 167 leader–follower dyads at two Chinese companies. The current research reveals a bright side of narcissism, which has typically been recognized as a dark personality trait, and enriches the understanding of the antecedents of change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. This research can also guide organizations that wish to stimulate employee proactivity.