A novel framework to unearth corporate hypocrisy: Connotation, formation mechanism, manifestation, and contagion effect

Abstract Corporate hypocrisy refers to the phenomenon of inconsistency between words and deeds of a firm in the process of fulfilling its social responsibility. Despite the fact that the literature related to corporate hypocrisy has made some progress, there have been very few attempts to scrutinize the topic systematically. In the light of egoistic and altruistic motivations, and capitalizing on social network theory, this study classifies corporate hypocrisy into three types: direct corporate hypocrisy, indirect corporate hypocrisy, and interactive corporate hypocrisy. Considering the differences in the identification of pro‐social motivation attributes between companies and the public in releasing/analyzing hypocritical information, a 2 ( companies vs. the public ) × 2 ( egoism vs. altruism ) framework of the formation mechanism of corporate hypocrisy was constructed. Nine differentiated manifestations were defined from the perspective of preevent, during the event, and postevent time dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) behaviors and the type of corporate hypocritical behavior. Based on stakeholder theory, the contagion effect of corporate hypocrisy was also analyzed from the perspective of primary and secondary stakeholders, the “immunity‐infection” dual‐pathway analysis model of the contagion effect of corporate hypocrisy was constructed, and the intervention measures were proposed. A novel framework to understand corporate hypocrisy in the mode of “sending–receiving” was proposed, which can enrich and deepen our understanding of corporate hypocrisy and possible causes and mitigation measures. Conclusions obtained through our study can help the public, governments, and firms to better understand, track, and oversee the phenomenon of corporate hypocrisy and evolve proper guidelines to minimize hypocritical behavior.