Media Narratives of Ethical Succession: Socially Constructing Corporate Social Responsibility in Chinese Television Dramas 1

ABSTRACT This study examines how Chinese television dramas socially construct corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the context of ethical family‐business succession. Drawing on stakeholder theory and qualitative content analysis, we analyze eight widely viewed TV series (including one negative case) that dramatize succession processes in Chinese family firms. Findings show that succession is portrayed not as a simple leadership transfer but as a culturally embedded moral arena in which intergenerational reconciliation, value conflicts, and ethical dilemmas determine whether CSR commitments are upheld or undermined. The analysis identifies three recurring narrative patterns—evasion, rationalization, and confrontation—that reveal the psychological and ethical mechanisms underlying succession decisions. Crucially, media representations consistently link successful succession to sustained CSR across three dimensions: ethical responsibility (integrity and accountability as prerequisites for legitimate leadership), social responsibility (employee well‐being, community engagement, and familial harmony), and, to a lesser extent, environmental responsibility (often depicted as a secondary or contested obligation). These portrayals both mirror and may contribute to shaping public expectations that ethical succession and CSR are inseparable in Confucian‐influenced family firms. The study contributes to family business and CSR literature by illustrating how mass media narratives function as a cultural mechanism that shapes and legitimizes (or sanctions) CSR practices during ethical family‐business succession. By extending stakeholder theory through the novel conceptualization of popular television dramas as public symbolic arenas in which stakeholder expectations of CSR are actively negotiated and normatively evaluated during succession, it provides new insights into the symbolic and normative construction of CSR in Confucian‐influenced transitional family enterprises.