Financial experts of top management teams and corporate social responsibility: evidence from China

Zhe, L., Wang, B. and Zhou, D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4238-0526 (2022) Financial experts of top management teams and corporate social responsibility: evidence from China. Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, 59. pp. 1335-1386. ISSN 1573-7179 doi: 10.1007/s11156-022-01077-5

Abstract/Summary

This study examines how the financial experience of senior executives influences corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and reporting activities. With a sample of Chinese listed companies over the period 2009–2018, we find that companies with senior executives with financial expertise are associated with higher CSR performance and tend to issue lengthier sustainability reports than companies without; in addition, the percentage of financial experts on the top management team (TMT) is positively related to CSR. We next find that such improvement in CSR is mainly driven by senior executives who have work experience in regulatory-oriented financial institutions. By examining the role of the TMT’s latitude of action, we find that the positive influence of senior executives’ financial experience on CSR is more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises and in cash-abundant companies. Last, further analysis demonstrates that the enhancement in CSR driven by financially sophisticated executives drives firm value. The results are robust to alternative measures, sensitivity tests, and various controls for endogeneity concerns.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/105173
Identification Number/DOI	10.1007/s11156-022-01077-5
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Henley Business School > Finance and Accounting
Publisher	Springer
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