Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting and Firm Performance: The Moderating Role of Women Directorship

Abstract

We test the relationship between the disclosure of corporate social information and firm performance according to whether the firm has female board members or not. The challenge of CSR reporting is to minimize stakeholder skepticism. Gender diversity, as an important part of corporate governance, may be used by stakeholders to assess the firm’s social commitment and to filter the quality of CSR information. We investigate the moderating effect of women directorship on the relationship between CSR reporting and financial performance, as measured by Tobin’s q and ROA, for a sample of French listed companies belonging to the SBF 120 index from 2001 to 2010. We demonstrate that the benefits of women directorship lie not only in improving the CSR reporting level but also in enhancing the credibility of the information disclosed, leading CSR reporting to be more economically viable.

Keywords: Women on board; Corporate social responsibility reporting; Firm performance