CEOs' famine experience and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from China

This study examines whether CEOs’ early-life exposure to the Great Chinese Famine (1959–1961) affects corporate social responsibility (CSR). Integrating Imprinting Theory and Upper Echelons Theory, we conceptualize famine as a formative experience shaping executives’ long-term preferences and strategic decision-making. Using panel data on Chinese A-share-listed firms from 2010 to 2020 and manually collected information on CEOs’ famine exposure, we estimate firm-fixed effects models to examine the relationship between early-life famine exposure and CSR performance. The results show that firms led by CEOs who were famine-exposed exhibit significantly higher CSR scores. The findings are robust to alternative measures of famine exposure, cohort-based identification, propensity score matching, and placebo tests. Additional analyses indicate that the effect is stronger for CEOs exposed during early childhood and is concentrated in CSR dimensions related to employees, stakeholders, the environment, and society. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the effect is significant only in state-owned enterprises and large-scale firms. These results highlight executive imprinting as an important channel through which historical shocks shape contemporary corporate behavior.