Drivers and value-relevance of CSR performance in the logistics sector: A cross-country firm-level investigation

The purpose of this study is to explore the drivers and value-relevance of corporate social responsibility performance in the logistics sector by particularly focusing on board characteristics and ownership structure. Corporate social responsibility performance is measured with a composite ESG (environmental, social, and governance) score and with its three sub-dimensions between 2011 and 2018. Fixed Effects regression analysis was run to test the hypotheses, and subsequently, Ordinary Least Squares regression was run to test the robustness of the results. The results suggest that board gender diversity is positively associated with overall corporate social responsibility performance and governance performance. Moreover, the firms which have a sustainability committee are more likely to have greater corporate social responsibility performance (both overall and social) than those do not. Furthermore, firms with diffused ownership structures are more likely to show greater performance in the Social Pillar of corporate social responsibility. Board independence has a weak association with only governance performance. Contrary to expectations, the results regarding the value-relevance of corporate social responsibility performance did not produce significant positive outcomes. These findings confirm that women on boards and corporate social responsibility committees are an essential factor to achieve corporate social responsibility goals. However, the insignificant relationship between board characteristics and the Environmental Pillar of corporate social responsibility performance is quite surprising, and the discovery sparks various queries. Finally, logistics firms need to reconsider the competency or role of independent directors in corporate social responsibility issues as currently they are weakly influential.