Unlocking social salience for ethical and philanthropic CSR of cooperatives: an information sharing perspective

Purpose Research on the drivers of corporate social responsibility (CSR) often overlooks the simultaneous consideration of CSR activities for internal (ethical CSR) and external stakeholders (philanthropic CSR), especially in interorganizational relationships. Drawing upon stakeholder theory, this study examines the sequential mediation of information-sharing dimensions in the relationship between social salience and CSR in financial cooperatives. Design/methodology/approach To test the conceptual model, structural equation modeling was applied to data collected from 132 managers of Brazilian financial cooperatives. Findings The results confirm the direct association of social salience with both ethical and philanthropic CSR. They also indicate partial mediation of willingness to share information in the relationship between social salience and ethical and philanthropic CSR, which contrasts with information connectivity, which was not significant. Sequential mediation of willingness to share information and information connectivity was observed in the relationship between social salience and ethical CSR, but not for philanthropic CSR. Research limitations/implications The findings demonstrates that cooperatives need, on the one hand, to enhance social salience to promote information sharing aimed at the ethical sensitivity of internal stakeholders and, on the other hand, to better shape interorganizational technology connectivity to mitigate social problems of external stakeholders. Originality/value The study advances and contributes to the literature by examining the sequential mediation of information-sharing dimensions in the relationship between social salience and ethical and philanthropic CSR. Whereas these dimensions are often addressed in an aggregated manner, this study considers their multidimensionality, providing a more refined and nuanced perspective that enhances the understanding of the challenges involved in fostering CSR within cooperatives.