Do venture capitalists with foreign experience drive corporate social responsibility better? Evidence from China

Using a manually collected dataset, we examine the effects of venture capitalists with foreign experience on firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement. By analysing firm-, deal- and venture capitalist-level samples, we find that venture capitalists with foreign experience significantly improve their portfolio firms' CSR; this finding holds across extensive robustness tests. Venture capitalists with foreign experience promote CSR more significantly if they join the board of directors or invest in the firm's early stages. Our results suggest that venture capitalists with foreign experience transplant the client demands, management practices and social norms they have experienced abroad to their firms.