The effect of firm maturity on corporate social responsibility (CSR): do older firms invest more in CSR?

Motivated by the literature on corporate life cycles, we explore the effect of firm maturity on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Our results based on over 26 000 observations across 21 years reveal that more mature firms invest significantly more in CSR. Furthermore, we find that the effect of firm maturity is not uniform across different categories of CSR. As firms get older, they become much more responsible in terms of diversity and environmental awareness, whereas the effect of firm ageing is much weaker in terms of human rights and product safety. Our study is the first to link corporate life cycles to CSR.