Research On The Impact Of Board Faultlines On Corporate Social Responsibility

With the epidemic,natural disasters and the global semiconductor shortage and other emergencies having a serious impact on the global economy,integrating social responsibility consciousness into enterprise management strategy is an important way to achieve sustainable development.Corporate social responsibility is the key to maintain stakeholder relationship,the board of directors needs to bring it into the strategic decision-making of the company,balance economic and social benefits,strengthen the connection between the enterprise and the outside world,so as to realize the sustainable development of the enterprise.In addition,the uncertainty of the economic environment intensifies the demand for board members with specific knowledge and experience.Then,can a diversified board of directors promote CSR performance and help enterprises to achieve sustainable development? There is no consensus on the research conclusions about the effectiveness of board diversity.Scholars consider the combination effect of multiple characteristics and members’ social psychological process,and introduce the concept of faultlines into relevant researches in the field of corporate governance.Therefore,we study the impact of board faultlines on CSR.Based on listed companies from 2008 to 2019 as the research sample,we examine the impact of board faultlines on CSR performance from the perspective of board member cooperation-conflict.Furthermore,we explore the mediating role of board meeting between the board faultlines and CSR,and the moderating role of competitive environment in the relationship between the two.In further tests,we conduct grouping regression tests on agency costs,property rights and external concerns.And we explore the impact of board faultlines on CSR performance in terms of employees,products,environment and charitable donations.The results show that the existence of board faultlines can promote enterprises to actively undertake social responsibility.Among the influencing mechanisms,the board faultlines can promote CSR performance by improving the intensity of board decision behavior.The increase of market competition intensity is conducive to the board faultlines to promote enterprises to undertake social responsibility.Further research shows that the positive impact of high agency cost,private enterprise and high external concern group’s board faultlines on CSR is more obvious.The existence of the board faultlines has a positive impact on the substantive social responsibility activities of employees,consumers,the environment,social donations and so on.This paper not only provides theoretical evidence for the positive impact of board fracture zone,but also provides practical guidance for enterprises to adjust board structure in daily business activities,improve corporate governance environment,promote enterprises to assume social responsibility,and improve their overall competitiveness.