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Corporate Purpose, Tax Avoidance, Environment, and Social Accountability: Empirical Evidence
Jamshed, Rana
Jamshed, Rana
Date
2026-03
Author
Advisor
Type
Dissertation
Degree
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33.330-2026.01a Rana Jamshed.pdf
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Description
A Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation in Business Administration (Finance Concentration) by Rana Jamshed entitled, “Corporate Purpose, Tax Avoidance, Environment, and Social Accountability: Empirical Evidence”, submitted in March 2026. Dissertation advisor is Dr. Narjess Boubakri and dissertation co-advisor is Dr. Omrane Guedhami. Soft copy is available (Dissertation, Completion Certificate, Approval Signatures, and AUS Archives Consent Form).
Abstract
Business Roundtable firms have faced intense scrutiny from investors, media, and the public following their 2019 “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation,” which marked a shift from shareholder-centric governance to a stakeholder-focused approach. This shift has sparked debate over whether Business Roundtable firms are genuinely committed to social responsibility or merely using it as a branding strategy without implementing meaningful changes. This thesis examines this debate across three chapters. Chapter 1 provides an extensive review of the Business Roundtable, tracing the theoretical conversation, historical evolution, and membership composition using novel hand-collected data, as well as its growing prominence in the United States economy, lobbying power, and policymaking, with descriptive evidence highlighting its economic and political significance. Chapter 2 examines governance accountability by analyzing whether Business Roundtable firms align their tax behavior with their 2019 pledge. Using a difference-in-differences framework on United States public firms from 2004 to 2022, the chapter tests whether Business Roundtable members engage in higher levels of tax avoidance than non-Business Roundtable firms and whether their tax practices changed following the Statement. Chapter 3 extends the analysis to environmental and social accountability by leveraging RepRisk incident data to capture media-reported controversies and assess whether Business Roundtable firms experienced changes in environmental and social incidents relative to matched non-Business Roundtable firms, including heterogeneity across industries and political contexts. Overall, the thesis traces a theoretical path and provides empirical evidence on whether Business Roundtable firms’ public commitments are reflected in observable changes in tax avoidance and environment, social, governance incidents, thereby contributing to debates on corporate purpose, greenwashing, and the credibility of voluntary corporate pledges.