Internal and external CSR in China: How do women independent directors matter?

How do women independent directors influence a firm’s strategic responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR)? To address this question, we integrate social role theory and the stakeholder perspective to examine the impacts of female independent directors on firms’ internal and external CSR engagement. Using a dataset on publicly listed Chinese firms for 2008–2015, we find that firms with a greater proportion of female independent directors tend to engage more extensively in internal than in external CSR. The effects of having female independent directors on both internal and external CSR are stronger when a high proportion of independent directors on a board are politically connected, but are weaker when a high proportion of independent directors on the same board are returnees with foreign experience. This study casts light on new ways in which social role and stakeholder theories can be synergized to advance our understanding of board governance and CSR strategies.