Who Is Governing Whom? Senior Managers, Governance and the Structure of Generosity in Large U.S. Firms

Interesting new research from Christopher Marquis and Matthew Lee at Harvard Business School on key structural drivers of corporate philanthropy: gender of senior managers, CEO tenure and board structure all have an impact on a firm’s generosity…and you may find some of them counter-intuitive.

• Corporate philanthropy is highest in corporations with new CEOs, and decreases with the length of CEO tenure.
• The greater the proportion of female senior managers in a company, the greater the corporate philanthropic contributions will be.
• Companies with larger boards tend to have higher philanthropic contributions.

 

What impact might this have as you seek partners for your work?

Who Is Governing Whom? Senior Managers, Governance and the Structure of Generosity in Large U.S. Firms — HBS Working Knowledge.