Board characteristics and aggressive CSR engagement: Does CSR committee provoke or restrain?

Abstract

Over the past two decades, numerous research studies have focused on the effect of board characteristics on corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement. However, whether boards favor or oppose aggressive CSR engagement above an optimal level remains to be explored. Thus, we extend prior studies and explore boards’ association with aggressive CSR engagement by estimating aggressive CSR level according to multiple firm characteristics. We also investigate the moderation role of CSR committees in the connection between boards and aggressive CSR engagement. Drawing on an international sample of 39,855 firm-year observations from 2002 to 2019 and performing a fixed-effects regression, we find that board gender and cultural diversity, board skills, board meeting attendance, and board independence are positively associated with aggressive CSR engagement. However, CSR committees negatively moderate the relationship between board characteristics and aggressive CSR engagement. To check the robustness of the findings, we ran several tests adopting alternative aggressive CSR proxy, addressing the endogeneity, and conducting heterogeneity analyses for firm and institutional characteristics.