Corporate contribution to poverty alleviation: an integrated framework of willingness and ability

The paper examines how executive motivation and firm capability jointly influence corporate contribution to poverty alleviation. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms, we find that firms whose executives possess political connections or experienced poverty in childhood contribute more to poverty alleviation. Moreover, better-performing firms with politically connected executives make even more contributions, whereas firm performance does not affect the relationship between executives’ childhood poverty experience and corporate contribution. We also document that the strength of political connections and the type of childhood poverty experience matter. Moreover, executive background and firm performance only affect corporations’ cash contributions but do not influence their material contributions. Overall, our study reveals that corporate contribution to poverty alleviation is affected by both strategic and altruistic motives of executives and is subject to the influence of firm performance especially when executives are driven by political motives.