TY - JOUR

T1 - Do CEO incentives and characteristics influence Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and vice versa? A literature review

AU - Velte, Patrick

PY - 2020/10/20

Y1 - 2020/10/20

N2 - Purpose – This paper aims to analyze whether chief executive officer (CEO) incentives and characteristics (e.g. CEO power, CEO tenure) are linked with corporate social responsibility (CSR) and vice versa.Design/methodology/approach – Based on upper echelons theory, the author conducts a structured literature review and evaluates 84 empirical-quantitative studies on CEOand CSR variables.Findings – While the majority of the included studies analyzed the CEO-CSR link, there are indicators for a bidirectional relationship. Moreover, prior research has focused on CEO incentives, especially compensation contracts, and on the US capital market. A major research gap relates to CEO characteristics, e.g. CEOvalues, education and experience.Research limitations/implications – Heterogeneous CEO and CSR variables and endogeneity concerns lower the validity of recent studies. Future research is encouraged to implement dynamic regression models, increase CSR and CEO proxies and focus on international samples with country specific effects.Practical implications – As CEO activities can have a major impact on CSR activities, the author recommends firms to search for opportunities to make their CSR strategy more comprehensive by their stakeholder communication, thus providing deeper insights into their CSR performance in line with stakeholders’ interests.Originality/value – The paper is the first literature review on the interaction between CEO and CSR so far. The author explains the main CEO and CSR variables that have been included in research, stresses the limitations of the studies and gives useful recommendations for future research, practice and regulators.

AB - Purpose – This paper aims to analyze whether chief executive officer (CEO) incentives and characteristics (e.g. CEO power, CEO tenure) are linked with corporate social responsibility (CSR) and vice versa.Design/methodology/approach – Based on upper echelons theory, the author conducts a structured literature review and evaluates 84 empirical-quantitative studies on CEOand CSR variables.Findings – While the majority of the included studies analyzed the CEO-CSR link, there are indicators for a bidirectional relationship. Moreover, prior research has focused on CEO incentives, especially compensation contracts, and on the US capital market. A major research gap relates to CEO characteristics, e.g. CEOvalues, education and experience.Research limitations/implications – Heterogeneous CEO and CSR variables and endogeneity concerns lower the validity of recent studies. Future research is encouraged to implement dynamic regression models, increase CSR and CEO proxies and focus on international samples with country specific effects.Practical implications – As CEO activities can have a major impact on CSR activities, the author recommends firms to search for opportunities to make their CSR strategy more comprehensive by their stakeholder communication, thus providing deeper insights into their CSR performance in line with stakeholders’ interests.Originality/value – The paper is the first literature review on the interaction between CEO and CSR so far. The author explains the main CEO and CSR variables that have been included in research, stresses the limitations of the studies and gives useful recommendations for future research, practice and regulators.

KW - Management studies

KW - Corporate Social Responsibility

KW - CSR disclosure

KW - CSR performance

KW - Upper echelons theory

KW - CEO incentives

KW - Chief executive officer (CEO)

KW - Sustainability Science

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074353619&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1108/SRJ-04-2019-0145

DO - 10.1108/SRJ-04-2019-0145

M3 - Scientific review articles

VL - 16

SP - 1293

EP - 1323

JO - Social Responsibility Journal

JF - Social Responsibility Journal

SN - 1747-1117

IS - 8

ER -