Study On The Mechanism Of The Impact Of Female Directors On Corporate Social Responsibility

In 2018,the state of California signed a bill which requires that listed companies headquartered in California nominate at least one female member into the board.This bill triggered debate over the value of female directors for the international community.At the beginning of the 21 st century,a series of financial scandals of listed companies which were represented by Enron and World Com and the 2008 financial crisis had brought reflections on gender structure of the board of directors all over the world.With the participation of more and more women into the field of business and society,the business ethics and corporate governance issues of gender diversity had been received more and more attention.A large number of studies have shown that female directors contribute to the improvement of corporate governance and corporate value.But how female directors affect corporate social responsibility by intermediary role of board governance,and if the results vary with different internal and external situation factors,especially since the board of directors is a group decision-making mechanism,whether and how different group dynamics influence the role of women directors,very little studies pay attention to the these questions,however the answers to these questions have great theoretical and practical significance for further analysis and improvement of the causal chain of female directors affecting corporate social responsibility decisions,and for the understanding of the path and the situation of female directors affecting corporate social responsibility decisions,and for better opening the "black box" of female directors affecting corporate social responsibility.Based on the feminist care ethics and social role theory and synthesized of psychology,sociology,organizational behavior,management disciplines,and other multi-disciplinary theories,this paper focus on“the mechanism of the impact of female directors on corporate social responsibility”,applies A-share listed companies data of the Shenzhen and Shanghai exchanges from 2008 to 2015 and Stata statistical software to perform descriptive statistics analysis,correlation analysis,Heckman two-stage regression analysis,hierarchical regression analysis and other regression analysis.Based on above normative analysis and empirical research,this paper mainly carries out the following six sub-studies.Sub-study 1,the analysis of the main effects of female directors on corporate social responsibility.Sub-study 2,the analysis of the mediating effect of board performance behavior between female directors and corporate social responsibility.Sub-study 3,the analysis of the moderating effect of individual characteristics of female directors on corporate social responsibility.Sub-study 4,from the perspective of gender synergy,this paper discusses the synergy effect of the interaction and mutual influence between female directors and other female members of the top executive team on corporate social responsibility.Sub-study 5,from the perspective of group synergy,this paper discusses the synergy effect of homogeneity and heterogeneity demographic characteristics of the board of directors between female directors and corporate social responsibility.Sub-study 6,from the perspective of external institutional environment,this paper analyzes the moderating effect of property institutional environment,industry institutional environment and regional institutional environment between female directors and corporate social responsibility.Through these studies,the following conclusions are drawn: Firstly,female directors' participation in corporate governance has a significant role in promoting the performance of corporate social responsibility.Secondly,there are significant differences between different types of women directors on corporate social responsibility,compared to female non-executive directors,the double assurance of female executive directors involved in strategic decision-making and strategic implementing is one of the important reasons to improve corporate social responsibility.Thirdly,board performance behavior has an important effect between female directors and CSR performance.Fourthly,individual characteristics of female directors have a contingent influence on the relationship between female directors and corporate social responsibility.The age and education level of female directors have a significant positive impact on corporate social responsibility.However,the busy work of female directors will restrict their role.The management education background(MBA/EMBA education experience)and academic background of female directors can further expand their positive role on corporate social responsibility.Fifthly,there is a synergy effect of same-sex social interaction among female top executive teams.Among them,female chairman is positively synergistic with female directors on corporate social responsibility,while female executive managers are negatively synergistic with female directors on corporate social responsibility.Sixthly,the homogeneity and heterogeneity demographic characteristics of board members have a significant impact on corporate social responsibility.Among them,the more similar the age of board members is and the older the average age is,the better to corporate social responsibility.The more dispersed the tenure of board members,the more beneficial to corporate social responsibility;the high average degree and the moderate degree heterogeneity of board members are beneficial to corporate social responsibility.Finally,the external institutional environment has a contingent impact on the relationship between female directors and corporate social responsibility.The positive influence of female directors on corporate social responsibility is more significant in state-owned enterprises,manufacturing enterprises and enterprises in regions with poor institutional environment.The innovation points of this paper are as follows: Firstly,it introduces the intermediate mechanism of "board performance behavior",and reveals the action path and process of how female directors influence corporate CSR performance by direct and indirect ways.Secondly,it analyzes the influence of individual characteristics of female directors on corporate social responsibility and the moderating effect of individual characteristics between female directors and CSR,including individual tenure characteristics and individual background characteristics.Thirdly,based on the group dynamics,this paper analyzes the influence of team situational factors on the role of female directors on CSR decision-making from the perspectives of gender synergy and group synergy.