Do Academic Directors Promote Corporate Social Responsibility?

Abstract

We find significant evidence that academic directors enhance firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance after examining a sample of S&P 1,500 firms for years 2002 to 2011. The presence of academic directors in corporate board increases firms’ CSR performance. Within academic directors, female academic directors have positive incremental effect on firm’s CSR performance. We also find that academic directors’ and female academic directors’ influence on CSR activity is not similar across CSR components. Among seven qualitative components of CSR, academic directors have significant positive effect on community, diversity, environment and product components. At the same time, female academic directors have positive effect on diversity and employee relations but negative effect on environment. Finally, we observe that the effect of academics on CSR is heterogeneous across their academic specialization and experience. In particular, we note that academics with administrative responsibility, business background and industry experience have significant positive effect on firms’ CSR performance.