Who Saves Our World? The Impact of Executives’ Gender on Corporate Social and Ecological Investments

Abstract

Archival research suggests that female executives have an impact on corporate decision-making and generally finds positive associations between female board representation and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance. However, archival research does not reveal why female executives decide differently in the context of CSR. As this is our starting point, we conduct an experiment and examine executives’ decision-making in terms of CSR investment. While female executives seem to be more oriented towards social and ecological practices, we find strong evidence that participants’ real-world incentive program mainly drives their CSR decision-making. We also examine if selected gender-specific character traits cause gender differences in executives’ CSR decision-making. Our study contributes to the literature on executives’ decision-making and to the CSR literature.