Who should be on a board corporate social responsibility committee?

The focus of this empirical study is to design the composition of a board corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee in order to positively impact corporate social performance. There has been little publication on this board sub-committee, in particular on its demographical composition. In this study, corporate social performance includes social, environmental and economic performances. Binary logistic regression analyses were conducted on firm-level data of year 2012 from the Bloomberg World Index of 177 non-financial companies having created a board CSR committee. The influence on corporate social performance of demographical components of this board sub-committee specialized in CSR issues is investigated. Dow Jones Sustainability World Index membership of companies is used as a proxy for corporate social performance. A board CSR committee composition effectiveness model is proposed. Furthermore, evidence was found for higher corporate social performance being more likely in companies having the following characteristics within the board CSR committee: larger proportion of independent directors, non-membership of the chief executive officer, higher average age of directors, female chair, and smaller size. For companies who intend to create a board CSR committee, or wish to improve the effectiveness of their existing board CSR committee, the results of this study are useful to decide who should be part of this committee.