This study investigates how different types of corporate philanthropy impact employees' life satisfaction. Grounded in signaling theory, we explore and clarify the nuances among three types of corporate philanthropy values: the absolute value of corporate philanthropy, the value of a firm's corporate philanthropy relative to its past level, and the value of corporate philanthropy relative to the firm size. Results of multilevel analyses on a large scale sample with 218 firms and 2,261 employees at two time points reveal that: the absolute value of corporate philanthropy positively influences employees' life satisfaction; the value of a firm's corporate philanthropy relative to its past philanthropy negatively impacts employees’ life satisfaction; and the value of corporate philanthropy relative to the firm size positively affects employees' life satisfaction. The results indicate that the influences of corporate philanthropy on employees' life satisfaction vary depending on the evaluation benchmarks. Firms may benefit by taking their size and past philanthropy into consideration when making corporate philanthropy investment decisions.

中文翻译：

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不同形式的企业慈善，不同的效果：多层次分析

这项研究调查了不同类型的企业慈善行为如何影响员工的生活满意度。基于信号理论，我们探索并阐明了三种类型的公司慈善价值之间的细微差别：公司慈善的绝对价值，相对于其过去水平的公司慈善价值，以及相对于公司规模的公司慈善价值。在两个时间点对218家公司和2,261名员工进行的大规模抽样的多层次分析结果表明：企业慈善事业的绝对价值对员工的生活满意度产生积极影响；公司的慈善事业相对于其过去的慈善事业的价值会对员工的生活满意度产生负面影响；公司慈善价值相对于公司规模的价值会积极影响员工的生活满意度。结果表明，企业慈善行为对员工生活满意度的影响取决于评估基准。在制定企业慈善投资决策时，公司可以通过考虑其规模和过去的慈善事业而受益。