The mediating role of CSR on the relationship between gender diversity and risk taking

Abstract

Existing literature is inconclusive about the relationship between gender diversity and risk taking and prior researchers assume, implicitly, that this relationship is direct. Conflicting results have led us to consider that a direct link is too simplistic and that this relationship can be mediated by other contextual variables. This is the first study to investigate the mediating effect of corporate social responsibility on the relationship between gender diversity and risk taking. A Structural Equation Model is used on a sample of 91 listed French firms on SBF over the period 2008–2018. Our results show that (1) CSR is positively associated with gender diversity; (2) CSR is negatively linked to firm risk; and (3) gender diversity impacts risk-taking in part through CSR mediation. Our findings are robust to several model specifications. It has important implications for shareholders and regulators, namely by highlighting the important role played by CSR in addressing this relationship.

Keywords:

• corporate social responsibility
• board gender diversity
• managerial risk taking
• mediation effect
• structural equation modeling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 More statistics are available upon request.

2 Justifications for these assumptions have been clarified by Byström (2003).