Where the past meets the present: Upward mobility, environmental stimuli, and CEOs’ investment in corporate social responsibility

Does the experience of upward mobility impact top executives’ investment in socially conscious initiatives at the firm level? Despite early theorizing, much remains unknown about how top executives’ experiences with upward mobility impact their decisions related to corporate social responsibility (CSR). In this study, we focus on chief executive officers (CEOs) from lower social class origins, who represent the most extreme case of upward mobility among their peers, and examine the effects of their background on the likelihood of helping others. Drawing on upper echelons and social class literature, we theorize that top executives’ past—where they come from (i.e. social class origins) and what they have experienced on their climb to the top—influences CSR decisions. We argue that CEOs from lower social class origins develop simultaneous, but at times competing, habitus that influence them to invest more in community-centric but less in employee-centric CSR than their counterparts from middle and upper social class backgrounds. Drawing on trait activation theory, we also predict the moderating influence of the immediate environmental context, namely local levels of poverty and prosperity. Overall, our results support our hypotheses and provide a complex picture of how upward mobility, and its attendant tensions, can affect executive values and CSR.