The effects of external stakeholder pressure and ethical leadership on corporate social responsibility in China

Abstract We examined how external stakeholder pressure and ethical leadership independently and interactively influence the implementation of corporate social responsibility. Based on data collected from 292 employees from 53 companies (Study 1) and from 224 middle-level managers from 40 companies (Study 2) in mainland China, we found that both ethical leadership and external stakeholder pressure have significant and positive impacts on corporate social responsibility implementation and the positive effect of external stakeholder pressure on corporate social responsibility weakens under a higher level of ethical leadership and strengthens under a low level of ethical leadership. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.