Fe-Males - How Adding Two Letters Impacts the Relationship between CSR and Financial Performance

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how CSR experienced female directors impact the relationship between CSR and financial performance. This is performed by applying a deductive research approach and analysing panel data with fixed effects regressions. In total, the empirical data consists of 2,065 firm-year observations for 449 unique firms listed on the S&P 500 index during the time period from 2012 to 2017. All data is accessed via Bloomberg. Moreover, the theoretical perspective used are the agency theory, the theory of the firm, the stakeholder theory, the instrumental stakeholder theory, the concept of stakeholder influence capacity, the good management theory, the resource dependency theory, the human capital theory, and the social role theory. The main findings of the thesis show a negative linear relationship between CSR and financial performance. However, appointing CSR experienced female directors improves the financial outcome of CSR. In particular, the findings show that appointing enough CSR experienced female directors can even turn the relationship between CSR and financial performance positive.