Shaping effect of digitalisation on corporate social responsibility: evidence from Born Global Entrepreneurial firms

Digitalisation has facilitated the cultivation of corporate social responsibility through the channels of information disclosure and financial stability of the enterprises under the background of globalisation and informationalization. This study explores the influence of digitalisation on the enhancement of Corporate Social Responsibility within 512 Born Global Firms (BGFs) listed on the Second-board Market during the period from 2014 to 2020. The study focuses on the extent to which digitalization contributes to corporate social responsibility, and the degree to which this impact is moderated by information disclosure and financial stability. The study employs the entropy weight method to accurately measure BGFs’ digitalisation. Moreover, both the information disclosure and financial stability exert important mediating role in bridging digitalisation and corporate social responsibility. The study designs enterprises’ information disclosure and financial stability as mediating paths and employs spatial mediating model to measure the shaping effect of digitalisation on corporate social responsibility. The digitalisation increased by 3.22%, and it had positively stimulated corporate social responsibility by 1.54% from 2014 to 2020. Enterprises’ information disclosure is identified as a significant mediator in this dynamic relationship between digitalisation and CSR to 10.34%. In contrast, financial stability did not have a significant mediating effect. The results underscore the strategic importance of leveraging digitalisation to enhance information disclosure, thereby bolstering BGFs’ CSR in response to external environmental pressures.The study provides a new perspective on embedding digital technologies into BGFs’ corporate stakeholder management and internal governance, and highlights information disclosure and corporate social responsibility through digitalisation. This study provides insights for seeking to leverage digital strategies to strengthen their corporate social responsibility stance and enhance stakeholder engagement.