Controversial industries such as the alcohol, gambling, tobacco, and firearms sectors have long suffered from organizational legitimacy problems. Using data covering 32 countries, we show that controversial industry firms’ engagement in CSR initiatives has a substantial risk‐decreasing effect, thereby increasing the probability of maintaining the social license to operate. The effect of CSR on firm risk, however, is more pronounced for firms in Europe and North America than in the Asia‐Pacific region, suggesting that the CSR–risk association varies by region. Our results are consistent with the view of the “social license to operate” and the “differential recognition” hypotheses.

中文翻译：

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有争议的行业，地区差异和风险：企业社会责任的作用*

酒精，赌博，烟草和枪支等有争议的行业长期以来一直遭受组织合法性问题的困扰。使用涵盖32个国家/地区的数据，我们表明，有争议的工业公司参与企业社会责任计划具有巨大的降低风险的作用，从而增加了维持经营社会许可证的可能性。然而，与亚太地区相比，欧洲和北美的公司对企业风险的影响更为明显，这表明企业社会责任与风险之间的联系因地区而异。我们的结果与“社会经营许可”和“差异承认”假说的观点一致。