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This study explores corporate strategic orientations as important drivers of firms’ philanthropic engagement. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationship between two broad corporate strategic orientations – domain offense (DO) and domain abandonment (DA) strategies – and the level of philanthropic engagement.

The authors propose that firms pursuing aggressive DO strategies are more likely to invest in corporate philanthropy as part of their market expansion efforts. On the contrary, firms pursuing DA strategies are less likely to invest in corporate philanthropy because of decreased slack resources, rather conservative external stakeholder expectations as well as a firm’s conscious decision to disengage with external stakeholders. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted using data from 122 publicly traded US corporations from 2008 to 2013.

The findings provided empirical support for a significant positive relationship between DO strategies (acquisition and strategic alliance intensity) and firms’ philanthropic engagement. However, the relationship between DA strategies (divestiture and plant/facility closing) and firms’ philanthropic engagement was not found to be significant. Overall, the findings indicated that philanthropic engagements along with carefully crafted DO strategies help firms expand their market presence.

Organizational leaders that systematically target philanthropic causes that effectively converge with important corporate strategies do benefit in the long run by achieving better brand equity and overall enhanced corporate reputation.

By empirically investigating the relationship between corporate strategic orientations and philanthropic engagement, this study contributes to the on-going scholarly discussion on the link between corporate strategies and philanthropic engagements.

The aim of this paper is to examine how companies officially recognized in Russia as corporate philanthropy leaders actually introduce, implement, and evaluate philanthropic activities. Focusing on the connections between these activities and corporate strategy, the paper seeks to investigate the main trends in corporate philanthropy development over the period 2007‐2010, assuming that corporate philanthropy is an integral part of corporate social performance.

A theoretical framework is based on the recognition of “strategic” philanthropy as a part as well as the main trend in current philanthropic activities of leading companies. The analysis as such is settled on survey data collected from participants in the national “Corporate Philanthropy Leaders” award competition conducted by the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti, PwC, and the non‐profit grant‐making organization “Donors Forum” from 2008 to 2011.

The results testify to strengthening connections between corporate philanthropy and corporate strategy, enhancing the strategic nature of philanthropy as such. Here the responding companies significantly diversified the directions of their philanthropic activities, whereas the distribution of corporate philanthropy by form showed a high stability that was practically unaffected by the economic crisis of 2008‐2009. A common practice is the professionalization of managing corporate philanthropy, with a growing role for CSR departments.

The study focuses on the activities of leading Russian companies participating in the national “Corporate Philanthropy Leaders” award competition, thereby restricting the analysis of non‐participants. Moreover, the evolution of competition surveys and their methodology as well as relatively low repetition of participants also restrict the degree of generalization. Future research could be based on the findings of this study to create hypotheses to be tested on a broader sample of Russian companies.

The majority of studies of corporate philanthropy in Russia are still covering the necessity of corporate philanthropy for resolving societal problems and describing particular “best practice” cases rather than analyzing the relation of corporate philanthropy to the whole system of CSP and its strategic applications. This study aims to address this gap by focusing on corporate philanthropy leaders as a first step to broad nationwide research.

Throughout the industrialised and developing world, corporate policy making and public policy making are converging. Governments are making deliberate and conscious choices about their economies and the forms of industrial organisation that will best accomplish broad social and economic objectives. Senior managers of enterprises face the influence of government policy in creating, shaping, and guiding the development of markets. The issues raised by this reality range well beyond the old regulation/deregulation debates of the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s, government and business are more entwined – and more inextricably linked as partners – because of recent global political and economic changes. This article assesses the prospects for the corporation and public policy in the decade ahead.

This study aims to develop a classification schema for strategic philanthropy as a framework for empirical investigation and managerial decision making. Additionally it aims to present experimental assessments of various types of philanthropy based on the classification schema.

This study presents the results of two experiments examining the effects of different types and implementation strategies of philanthropy on consumer perceptions of brand equity variables.

The experiments suggest that in a proactive condition corporate philanthropy does have an overall positive effect on consumer perceptions of corporate associations. However, the effects did not transfer to brand evaluations or patronage intentions. Additionally, philanthropy as a part of a recovery strategy has a consistent but non‐significant effect on consumer perceptions.

In the study manipulations respondents received the response at the same time as they read about the crisis. This generally would not happen in actual situations. A second limitation is the lack of control or manipulation for history between the company and the target segment in the directed philanthropy conditions.

The findings of this study have three managerial implications. First, traditional philanthropy may be effective for corporate or brand image objectives, but ineffective for brand evaluation and purchase objectives. Philanthropy directed toward a particular segment may also have a positive effect on consumers beyond that segment. Finally, in cases in which the objective is simply to thwart negative publicity, reactive philanthropy may not be a viable strategic option.

This study examines the effects of philanthropic activity on consumer perceptions of firms and the brands they market.

This paper aims to use the social impact hypothesis and the shift of focus hypothesis to examine what drives controversial industries to make philanthropic donations: sustainable development, which can in turn lead to higher firm performance or a better corporate image.

This study employed a sample of Chinese firms from 2008–2015 and conducted regression analysis to explore the motivations behind corporate philanthropy.

Philanthropic giving is positively and significantly related to all indicators of firm performance; the interaction term of controversial industries and philanthropic giving is also positively and significantly related to firm performance. The empirical evidence supports the social impact hypothesis.

The empirical evidence shows that firms engage in philanthropic giving, mainly in pursuit of their own interests. Hence, managers should consider the inherent characteristics of the company and then combine social interests with their economic interests to design a philanthropic strategy of their own, which can in turn contribute to sustainable development.

This paper empirically confirms that the social impact hypothesis holds for the philanthropic activities of Chinese firms. This is a rare finding in related studies.

This paper examines the role that effective governance plays in driving the strategies of grant-giving foundations as it relates to supporting various types of charitable and philanthropy activities of public interest. Today, foundations are more than ever active as pivotal element of the so called ‘private welfare state’ all around Europe and the United States. While other forms of organizations involved in philanthropy and public welfare face competition (i.e. corporations), budget constrain (i.e. governments) or fundraising imperatives (i.e. NGOs), private foundations do not feel such a pressure and can, therefore, tackle social issues that other organizations may not. Despite this privileged position, the role of governance in such non-profit organizations is far from certain. Prior literature review shows the lack of empirical analysis related to the role of governance in foundations as they attempt to shape various projects of strong public interest.

Given foundations’ unique societal role and obligations and the fiscal advantages enjoyed by them, the objective of this study is to explore the factors that drive their decision-making and resource allocation process and to examine the efficacy of their financial and non-financial resource allocation decisions. Using the data collected from 112 large Italian foundations, this paper studies the relationship between the governance mechanism and philanthropic strategies of private foundations.

The significance of the study is based on the fact that in the non-profit sector, more than in the for-profit one, board members are called to play a strong advisory role at the top of their traditional monitoring role. In other words, active boards are expected to screen relevant public needs and to properly invest foundations’ resources in meritorious projects; while inert boards risks to pursuit private goals, camouflaged as public interest, and to dissipate resources by unconditionally financing unrelated grant requests.

This paper aims to empirically examine if and how different governance attributes associate with different philanthropic strategies. The choice of Italian foundations represents an ideal research environment considering the strong reduction of governmental social spending due to the financial crisis and the simultaneous increase in the social relevance of private foundations to support social causes of significance.

This paper aims to examine the drivers of corporate donations in Jordan. In particular, to examine whether firm-specific characteristics and ownership types affect corporate donations.

The analysis is based on a sample of 94 Jordanian listed companies, drawn from the manufacturing and service sectors, over the period 2010–2016. This paper uses ordinary least square regression with a year and industry fixed effects to test the research hypotheses.

This paper finds that corporate philanthropic contributions are positively associated with company size, age, profitability, media exposure and governmental ownership. This paper also finds that corporate philanthropic contributions are negatively associated with financial leverage and family ownership.

The paper provides new evidence on the determinants of corporate philanthropic contributions in a developing country.

This study aims to (1) examine the effect of customer awareness of restaurant philanthropic activities on customer loyalty; (2) investigate the mediating roles of customer social benevolence trust, perceived restaurant reputation and affective commitment on the relationship between their awareness of restaurant philanthropic activities and customer loyalty; and (3) test the path effect differences between the directed and general philanthropic activities during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

This study used online scenario-based surveys to collect data. Based on 293 useable surveys, partial least squares structural equation modeling was applied for data analysis.

This study finds that customer awareness of restaurant philanthropic activities positively relates to customer loyalty. Moreover, customer social benevolence trust, perceived restaurant reputation and affective commitment have positive mediating effects on the relationship between their awareness of restaurant philanthropic activities and customer loyalty. There is no significant path effect difference between the directed and general philanthropic activities.

This study suggests that restaurant decision-makers should conduct either directed or general philanthropic activities as a marketing tool to sustain customers during the COVID-19 recovery.

This study is the first study that discusses the marketing role of corporate philanthropy in the restaurant industry during the COVID-19 pandemic and stresses the importance of proactive strategic donations that helps restaurants' recovery.

Small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) are typically reported to have a limited interest in broader societal concerns across the world. As a result, the purpose of this study is to develop a model of SME’s strategic philanthropic performance in light of the societal reactions to the COVID-19 issue, particularly in terms of the intervention of corporate spirituality and the solid regulatory motive behind these.

A systematic mixed review analysis has been executed to analyze the strategic philanthropic performance configuration triggered by the recent COVID-19 crisis, in which over 369 publications are read and reviewed by the authors. It has also established the reliability and validity of literature analysis. Also besides, a short form of qualitative investigation has been used to support the direction of the study.

Through regulatory adjustments, the study's findings effectively developed a strategic philanthropic performance configuration for SMEs. In this case, the strategic philanthropic convergence of corporate giving, corporate volunteering, corporate foundation and food bank has the potential to help SMEs thrive in the long run. The study also discovers that corporate spirituality might potentially mediate between appropriate regulations and strategic philanthropic performance of SMEs in the context of a supportive external environment.

Prior empirical attempts are subsequently required to inquiry about the proposed conceptualization from different perspectives.

The decision-makers of SMEs, with the efficient implementation of the proposed outline, will use the understanding given for their required actions to develop the competitive advantage in terms of social concerns. On this note, the outcomes of the study can also enhance business differentiation and competitiveness. It can also serve as a strategic guideline for firms to develop organizational values for long-term survival.

In the COVID-19 reality, SMEs will contribute to the concerns through philanthropy activities that are better suited for both enhanced social good and greater corporate advantages. The idea can also serve as a basis for SMEs to accomplish the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first research that conceptualizes the influence of government regulation on the strategic philanthropic performance of SMEs while taking corporate spirituality into account in order to survive the COVID-19 crisis.

Intellectual curiosity about innovation in philanthropic organizations has grown recently. This study aims to provide a thorough bibliometric analysis of the patterns and trends in the scientific literature on innovation in philanthropy.

Based on the Scopus database, a descriptive bibliometric analysis with a visualization tool (RStudio®) was used to assess the creation of 159 articles on innovation in philanthropic organizations.

This research finds a large number of papers on innovation in philanthropic organizations. According to this study, the USA has published more research than any other country. The Icahn School of Medicine has the most popular publications, followed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. According to the number of citations, the Journal of Business Ethics is the most prolific journal. However, according to the h-index, Corporate Reputation Review is the most important publication. Halme M is regarded as a prominent scholar. With 244 citations, the work of Kramer MR and Porter ME is the most referenced. “Philanthropy” is the most often used keywords category, followed by “innovation” and “social innovation”.

This study can serve as a useful reference for researchers conducting bibliometric research by offering information on the field’s famous authors. Furthermore, the outcomes of this study make it straightforward for researchers to seek extensive academic collaboration in this field.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to present a pattern in research on innovation in philanthropic organizations.