Do CEOs matter to corporate social (Ir)responsibility? A meta-analytic investigation

Abstract

Following high-profile corporate scandals and continued questions about the role and obligation of corporations beyond financial metrics, CEOs have attracted considerable public and research attention with respect to their firms’ social performance. Research attention examining the link between CEOs and social performance has developed along two largely separate paths: corporate responsibility and irresponsibility, neither of which have been empirically summarized. In this paper, we meta-analyzed over 500 empirical studies to estimate true correlations between five broad categories of CEO characteristics (demographics; personality, leadership, values; CEO power; CEO experience; other characteristics) and firm-level social performance as indicated by both broad and narrow measures of social responsibility and social irresponsibility. We find that CEO gender, CEO values, CEO narcissism, CEO duality are significantly associated with social (Ir)responsibility. We discuss implications for upper echelons research, as well as practical implications of our findings.