Seminar 2024-11-27: Carla Sacchi

Abstract Social grand challenges, such as inequalities in education and in healthcare access, are issues complex in nature and growing globally (Buckley et al., 2017). Solutions require the collaboration among actors from multiple sectors, such as governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academic research centres and private firms (Ciabuschi et al., 2020; Gray & Purdy, 2018). While most of the ongoing discussion on grand challenges has focused on solving their negative externalities (Montiel et al., 2021), we focus on the positive externalities generated by the collaboration between actors from multiple sectors in the pharmaceutical market. We ask the following research question: How does participating in multisectoral partnerships affect firms’ social CSR performance?

We collected data from two data sources: data on Environment, Society and Governance (ESG) indicators and on firms’ fundamentals from Thomson Reuters ASSET4P; data on the social initiatives they carry out, from the companies’ reports (annual, CSR, sustainability or ESG reports) or websites. We collected data for 10 years (2013-2022) for 104 firms out of the 178 largest pharmaceutical firms headquartered in the United States, selected based on their size in 2022. We analysed this data by means of statistical panel regressions, with fixed eXect and Tobit models.

Building on the knowledge-based view (Grant, 1996; Håkanson, 2010), we extend current theory to incorporate the idea of knowledge sharing and integration within interorganizational relationships for the creation of innovative solutions for grand challenges that bring value to society. We propose that participating in multisectoral partnerships affects firms’ social CSR performance thanks to knowledge sharing and integration mechanisms between the partners (Tell, 2016). Knowledge processes in multisectoral partnerships help tackling knowledge complexity (Gray & Purdy, 2018), thus allowing for better solutions and better outcomes of the CSR initiatives. In turn, this leads to increased social CSR performance and improved impact of the firm CSR action (positive externalities).