ABSTRACT

This paper aims to examine how chief executive officer (CEO) dominance is associated with a firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement, and whether the board gender diversity moderates this relationship. We use a two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) to analyze this relationship in a sample of 700 firm-year observations from FTSE 100 listed companies covering the period from 2008 to 2017. This study shows that CEO dominance is negatively associated with CSR engagement, and that the board gender diversity is positively moderated this relationship. Our study finds evidence supporting both the critical mass theory and the upper echelons theory, and suggests that a high proportion of female in the board of directors may reduce the CEO dominance, as a key player in the top management team, and increase the CSR engagement. These results are robust to alternative econometric specifications and variable definitions. This study differs from previous studies in that we introduce the board gender diversity as a moderator of the relationship between CEO dominance and CSR engagement in the UK context.

摘要

本文旨在研究首席执行官 (CEO) 的主导地位如何与公司的企业社会责任 (CSR) 参与度相关，以及董事会的性别多样性是否会调节这种关系。我们使用两步系统广义矩法 (GMM) 来分析 2008 年至 2017 年期间 FTSE 100 上市公司的 700 个公司年观察样本中的这种关系。这项研究表明，CEO 主导地位与企业社会责任参与度以及董事会性别多样性积极调节了这种关系。我们的研究发现了支持临界质量理论和高层理论的证据，并表明董事会中女性比例较高可能会降低首席执行官作为高层管理团队关键成员的主导地位，并提高企业社会责任参与度。这些结果对于替代计量经济学规范和变量定义是稳健的。这项研究与之前的研究不同之处在于，我们引入了董事会性别多样性作为英国背景下首席执行官主导地位与企业社会责任参与之间关系的调节因素。