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Journal of Business Ethics (2009) 84:589603 Springer 2008 DOI 10.1007/s10551-008-9710-7
Exploring the Geography of Corporate Philanthropic Disaster Response: A Study of Fortune Global 500 Firms
Alan Muller Gail Whiteman
ABSTRACT. In recent years, major disasters have figured prominently in the media. While corporate response to disasters may have raised corporate philanthropy to a new level, it remains an understudied phenomenon. This article draws on comparative research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate philanthropy to explore the geography of corporate philanthropic disaster response. The study analyzes donation announcements made by Fortune Global 500 firms from North America, Europe and Asia to look for regional patterns across three recent disasters: the South Asian Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and the Kashmiri earthquake. The results reveal inter-regional differences in the overall likelihood of donations and in their cash value, in addition to the identification of home-region- and local presence effects. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.
KEY WORDS: CSR, disasters, philanthropy, regions
Introduction
In recent years, the world has experienced a number of intense natural disasters such as the South Asian Tsunami in December 2004, the ooding of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and remote villages in Kashmir leveled by an earthquake in October 2005. While it is usual for national governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) to take the lead in relief efforts, companies have increasingly emerged as major players in disaster response. Not only do companies donate cash to help fund relief and reconstruction efforts; they also provide goods and services as well as playing key roles in logistics and support activities (Fritz Institute, 2005). While systematic research is only recently beginning to shed light on this type of organizational
behavior; data indicate that such behavior is widespread in the global business community.
For instance, recent studies have found that approximately half of the Global Fortune 500 rms collectively contributed cash, goods, and services valued at US$580 million to the Tsunami relief effort (Muller et al., 2006), and that 79 US rms had a mean donation of US$934,600 to Tsunami relief (Patten, 2007). The Network for Consumer Protection (2005) documented the donations of 23 large corporations to the Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and the Kashmiri earthquake and reported cumulative donations of over...