The Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Financial Performance: the moderating role of CEO gender

As companies pursue sustainable development, people increasingly realise the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Research on the relationship between CSR and Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) has proliferated. The research on CSR has gradually developed a system in North America. However, as the research goes more profound, numbers of scholars realise that the conclusions of such research are inconsistent. At the same time, the relationship may be affected by other factors. Therefore, this paper aims to study the relationship between CSR and CFP in S&P 500 (Standard & Poor’s 500). At the same time, the chief executive officer (CEO) gender is introduced as a moderating variable to examine the above relationship. This study selects S&P 500 companies from 2010-2018 as a sample through Bloomberg's database. It empirically analyses the correlation between CSR and CFP and the moderating effect of CEO's gender using the regression and moderating effect models. This study adopts the ESG disclosure score to measure CSR and CFP indicators from accounting and market perspectives. The results indicate that it is vital for S&P 500 firms to be socially responsible, and the CEO gender has a moderating effect between CSR and CFP. Specifically, both perspectives of ESG disclosure scores and CFP show significant positive correlations, suggesting that the CSR of S&P 500 firms again has a significant positive impact on CFP. In addition, the moderating effect of CEO gender shows a significant negative correlation. It demonstrates that female CEOs are inhibitory in studying the relationship between CSR and CFP.