Abstract: Frequent outbreaks of corporate social responsibility (CSR) negative events resulted in serious negative impact on enterprise performance. These negative events may be due to insufficient capacity of enterprises or lack of morality of enterprises. With the product market perspective being a key factor affecting enterprise performance, this paper uses multiple linear regression analysis to examine the impact of CSR negative events on the product market competitiveness and the mitigation effect of the top management team (TMT) social capital. The empirical results show that: CSR negative events significantly reduce the product market competitiveness; the morality-related negative events have stronger influence on the product market competitiveness than ability-related negative events; the CSR negative events have a more adverse effect on the product market competitiveness in the competitive industry than monopoly industry; and the TMT social capital can significantly alleviate the impact of CSR negative events on the product market competitiveness. The conclusions provide suggestions and support for management to cope with CSR negative events.

Key words:  CSR negative events, product market competitiveness, TMT social capital