한국진출 다국적기업 자회사의 업령이 자선활동에 미치는 영향: 동태적 외국인 비용 관점

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted scholarly attention as a strategic means to mitigate the liability of foreignness facing multinational corporations (MNCs). This study investigates the relationship between tenure of MNC subsidiaries in the host country and corporate philanthropy and conducts an empirical analysis using the sample of MNC subsidiaries founded in Korea during periods between 2002 and 2016. The results reveal that the relationship represents an inverted U shape, suggesting that corporate philanthropy initially increases with the tenure, but reverses itself at higher levels when the liability of foreignness is alleviated enough at which point corporate philanthropy is no longer required as much. We hold that this is because both the liability of foreignness confronting newly founded MNC subsidiaries and their ability to address the liability change over time. We also find that this main relationship is moderated by advertising intensity, such that the underlying legitimating process is both accelerated and reinforced at the same time as advertising intensity increases. This finding implies that advertising serves as a double-edged sword: increasing sales at the cost of triggering the social sensemaking process that heightens the legitimating pressure for MNCs by raising visibility of their profit-maximizing behaviors. This study contributes to literature by shedding light on how CSR activities of MNCs purported to address the liability of foreignness can change dynamically with reference to organizational attributes.