Conformity or differentiation: How corporate social responsibility affects employee behaviour in China

Abstract In reality, not all enterprises pursue the same or similar corporate social responsibility practices. The effects produced by enterprises fulfilling the identical corporate social responsibility are not always the same. Based on the social identity theory and social exchange theory, this paper discusses the impact of corporate social responsibility on employee behaviour, so as to clarify the deep‐rooted motivations and effects of enterprises' choice of different social responsibility strategies under Chinese unique institutional contexts. By adopting a quantitative approach, this paper finds that corporate social responsibility positively predicts employee behaviour, and that different types of corporate social responsibility have different effects. In addition, this paper finds that employee organisational commitment mediates the relationship between corporate social responsibility and employee behaviour. Consistent corporate social responsibility mainly affects employees' in‐role behaviour primarily through normative commitment, and differentiated corporate social responsibility mainly affects employees' extra‐role behaviour through affective commitment. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.