Gender composition and director diversity affect corporate social responsibility and profitability: An econometric study

This study scrutinizes the relationship between communal transparency, ethical orientation of Fortune 500 companies, the number of females represented on the board of directors as reported in the 2012 annual report data and their profitability. The judgment was mainly based on whether the firm was listed on either (both) Ethisphere Magazine's 2012‘World's Most Ethical Companies’ or (and) Corporate Responsibility Magazine's 2012 ‘100 Best Corporate Citizens List (a sample of 56 companies were taken). To have an Indian view sample of BSE companies (17 companies) are taken on the same parameters. Our results indicate that, as the number of women directors’ increases, the probability of a corporation appearing on these lists increases and which leads to rise in profitability of those companies which have high CSR ratings.