Transfusion or Hematopoiesis? CEOs’ Early-Life Poverty Trauma and Asymmetric Involvement in Poverty Alleviation

Abstract How does a CEO’s early-life poverty trauma exposure affect a firm’s involvement in poverty alleviation and the prioritization between generic and strategic involvement? We find that CEOs with such exposure are more likely to engage in both types of poverty alleviation initiatives. We further examine the asymmetry effect and find that these CEOs will prioritize strategic over generic involvement in poverty alleviation. We also conduct a post hoc analysis to test the mediating effect of emphasis on resource efficiency on the relationship between CEOs’ early-life exposure to poverty trauma and the relative emphasis on strategic over generic involvement in poverty alleviation. Using a sample of Chinese publicly listed firms from 2016 to 2021, we find strong support for our predictions. Our study contributes to the literature on CEOs’ early-life experiences and corporate poverty alleviation engagement.