IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ami/journl/v24y2025i1p173-202.html

Does Gender Diversity Moderate the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Distress in European Firms?

Author

Listed:
  • Maali Kachouri

  • Yosra bida Youssef

    (ISFFS, Univeristy of Sousse, Tunisa)

Abstract

Purpose- this study provides a valuable contribution by exploring the moderating effect of gender diversity on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial distress. Design/Methodology/Approach- the study is based on a sample consisting of 488 European firms over the 2010–2022 period. This paper is motivated by moderation model that specify the interaction between corporate social responsibility, financial distress, and gender diversity. Findings- our results show that a high level of corporate social responsibility is negatively associated with financial distress in firms with a higher percentage of gender diversity. Practical implications- the findings of this study may interest academic researchers, investors, and regulators. Academic researchers will find value in exploring the dynamic relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR), financial distress, and gender diversity. For investors, our results indicate that the presence of female directors on the board is associated with increased financial distress. For regulators, our findings suggest that policymakers worldwide should emphasize the importance of female roles in enhancing firms' engagement in corporate social responsibility reporting. Originality/value- This paper contributes to the existing literature by examining the moderating effect of gender diversity on the relationship between corporate social responsibility and financial distress within the European context.

Suggested Citation

  • Maali Kachouri & Yosra bida Youssef, 2025. "Does Gender Diversity Moderate the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Financial Distress in European Firms?," Accounting and Management Information Systems, Faculty of Accounting and Management Information Systems, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 24(1), pages 173-202, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ami:journl:v:24:y:2025:i:1:p:173-202
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://online-cig.ase.ro/RePEc/ami/articles/24_1_6.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. María del Carmen Valls Martínez & Salvador Cruz Rambaud & Isabel María Parra Oller, 2019. "Gender policies on board of directors and sustainable development," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1539-1553, November.
    2. Abdifatah Ahmed Haji, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility disclosures over time: evidence from Malaysia," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 28(7), pages 647-676, July.
    3. Paul A. Gompers & Joy Ishii & Andrew Metrick, 2010. "Extreme Governance: An Analysis of Dual-Class Firms in the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Corporate Governance, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. repec:bla:jfinan:v:43:y:1988:i:1:p:1-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. García Lara, Juan Manuel & García Osma, Beatriz & Mora, Araceli & Scapin, Mariano, 2017. "The monitoring role of female directors over accounting quality," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 651-668.
    6. Darren D. Lee & Robert W. Faff, 2009. "Corporate Sustainability Performance and Idiosyncratic Risk: A Global Perspective," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 44(2), pages 213-237, May.
    7. Sonia Boukattaya & Abdelwahed Omri, 2021. "Impact of Board Gender Diversity on Corporate Social Responsibility and Irresponsibility: Empirical Evidence from France," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-14, April.
    8. Edward I. Altman, 1968. "Financial Ratios, Discriminant Analysis And The Prediction Of Corporate Bankruptcy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 589-609, September.
    9. John M. Griffin & Michael L. Lemmon, 2002. "Book‐to‐Market Equity, Distress Risk, and Stock Returns," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(5), pages 2317-2336, October.
    10. Sangeeta Mittal & Lavina, 2018. "Females’ Representation in the Boardroom and Their Impact on Financial Distress: An Evidence from Family Businesses in India," Indian Journal of Corporate Governance, , vol. 11(1), pages 35-44, June.
    11. Fabrizio Zerbini, 2017. "CSR Initiatives as Market Signals: A Review and Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 1-23, November.
    12. García, C. José & Herrero, Begoña, 2021. "Female directors, capital structure, and financial distress," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 592-601.
    13. Harris, Oneil & Karl, J. Bradley & Lawrence, Ericka, 2019. "CEO compensation and earnings management: Does gender really matters?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 1-14.
    14. Roman Lanis & Grant Richardson, 2012. "Corporate social responsibility and tax aggressiveness: a test of legitimacy theory," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 26(1), pages 75-100, December.
    15. Kevin Campbell & Antonio Mínguez-Vera, 2008. "Gender Diversity in the Boardroom and Firm Financial Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(3), pages 435-451, December.
    16. Mafrolla, Elisabetta & D’Amico, Eugenio, 2016. "Tax aggressiveness in family firms and the non-linear entrenchment effect," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 178-184.
    17. Simon Ho & Annie Li & Kinsun Tam & Feida Zhang, 2015. "CEO Gender, Ethical Leadership, and Accounting Conservatism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 351-370, March.
    18. Agrawal, Anup & Chadha, Sahiba, 2005. "Corporate Governance and Accounting Scandals," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 48(2), pages 371-406, October.
    19. John Parker, 2011. "Integrating CSR with hospitality management programmes in higher education," International Journal of Green Economics, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(4), pages 396-404.
    20. Brown, Lawrence D. & Caylor, Marcus L., 2006. "Corporate governance and firm valuation," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 409-434.
    21. repec:bla:jfinan:v:53:y:1998:i:3:p:1131-1147 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. repec:eme:maj000:maj-07-2012-0729 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Xutong Wu & Bojie Fu & Shuai Wang & Shuang Song & Yingjie Li & Zhenci Xu & Yongping Wei & Jianguo Liu, 2022. "Decoupling of SDGs followed by re-coupling as sustainable development progresses," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 5(5), pages 452-459, May.
    24. Harlan Platt & Marjorie Platt, 2002. "Predicting corporate financial distress: Reflections on choice-based sample bias," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 26(2), pages 184-199, June.
    25. Abdifatah Ahmed Haji, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility disclosures over time: evidence from Malaysia," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(7), pages 647-676, July.
    26. Charbel Salloum & Nehme Azoury, 2012. "Corporate governance and firms in financial distress: evidence from a Middle Eastern country," International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(1), pages 1-17.
    27. Yu-Hui Wang, 2020. "Does Board Gender Diversity Bring Better Financial and Governance Performances? An Empirical Investigation of Cases in Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-10, April.
    28. Rachel Croson & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 448-474, June.
    29. Khan, Muhammad Tariq Iqbal & Yaseen, Muhammad Rizwan & Ali, Qamar, 2019. "Nexus between financial development, tourism, renewable energy, and greenhouse gas emission in high-income countries: A continent-wise analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 293-310.
    30. Altı, Aydoğan & Sulaeman, Johan, 2012. "When do high stock returns trigger equity issues?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 61-87.
    31. Rania Beji & Ouidad Yousfi & Nadia Loukil & Abdelwahed Omri, 2021. "Board Diversity and Corporate Social Responsibility: Empirical Evidence from France," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(1), pages 133-155, September.
    32. Robert G. Eccles & Ioannis Ioannou & George Serafeim, 2014. "The Impact of Corporate Sustainability on Organizational Processes and Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(11), pages 2835-2857, November.
    33. Gupta, Sanjay & Newberry, Kaye, 1997. "Determinants of the variability in corporate effective tax rates: Evidence from longitudinal data," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 1-34.
    34. Charbel Salloum & Nehme Azoury, 2012. "Corporate Governance and Firms in Financial Distress: Evidence from a Middle Eastern Country," Post-Print hal-01380791, HAL.
    35. Huang, Jiekun & Kisgen, Darren J., 2013. "Gender and corporate finance: Are male executives overconfident relative to female executives?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 822-839.
    36. David A. Carter & Betty J. Simkins & W. Gary Simpson, 2003. "Corporate Governance, Board Diversity, and Firm Value," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 38(1), pages 33-53, February.
    37. Pengjie Gao & Christopher A. Parsons & Jianfeng Shen, 2018. "Global Relation between Financial Distress and Equity Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(1), pages 239-277.
    38. Renée B. Adams & Patricia Funk, 2012. "Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Does Gender Matter?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(2), pages 219-235, February.
    39. Rachel Bocquet & Caroline Danièle Mothe, 2011. "Exploring the relationship between CSR and innovation: A comparison between small and largesized French companies," Post-Print hal-00919326, HAL.
    40. Boubaker, Sabri & Cellier, Alexis & Manita, Riadh & Saeed, Asif, 2020. "Does corporate social responsibility reduce financial distress risk?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 835-851.
    41. Hossein Tarighi & Andrea Appolloni & Ali Shirzad & Abdullah Azad, 2022. "Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure (CSRD) and Financial Distressed Risk (FDR): Does Institutional Ownership Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-28, January.
    42. Linda H. Chen & Jeffrey Gramlich & Kimberly A. Houser, 2019. "The effects of board gender diversity on a firm's risk strategies," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 59(2), pages 991-1031, June.
    43. Ayman Issa & Nasrine Bensalem, 2023. "Are gender‐diverse boards eco‐innovative? The mediating role of corporate social responsibility strategy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 742-754, March.
    44. Shaista Wasiuzzaman & Wan Masliza Wan Mohammad, 2020. "Board gender diversity and transparency of environmental, social and governance disclosure: Evidence from Malaysia," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(1), pages 145-156, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yasmine Souissi & Anis Jarboui, 2025. "Does Corporate Governance Shape the Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility Performance and Financial Distress in Large European Companies?," International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, International Journal of Finance, Insurance and Risk Management, vol. 15(1), pages 57-82.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:ami:journl:v:24:y:2024:i:1:p:173-202 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Jihad Al-Okaily & Salma Naueihed, 2025. "Boardroom balance: exploring the non-linear impact of female board representation on anti-corruption disclosures in UK firms," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 29(2), pages 573-602, June.
    3. Alkhawaja, Abdallah & Hu, Fang & Johl, Shireenjit & Nadarajah, Sivathaasan, 2023. "Board gender diversity, quotas, and ESG disclosure: Global evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Tarkom, Augustine & Nochebuena-Evans, Leiza & Wang, Haibo, 2025. "The effectiveness of female chief financial officers in managing working capital: Evidence from US-listed firms," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    5. Camilla Ciappei & Simone Terzani & Andrea Bafundi & Giovanni Liberatore, 2023. "Do women empower other women? Empirical evidence of the effect of female pervasiveness on firm risk‐taking," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(4), pages 4157-4174, December.
    6. Maria Fátima Ribeiro Borges & Graça Maria do Carmo Azevedo & Jonas Oliveira, 2025. "Literature review on gender diversity in top management teams of companies and its relationship with firm performance and audit quality," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 177-201, March.
    7. García, C. José & Herrero, Begoña, 2021. "Female directors, capital structure, and financial distress," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 592-601.
    8. Zalata, Alaa Mansour & Abdelfattah, Tarek, 2021. "Non-executive female directors and earnings management using classification shifting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 301-315.
    9. Hannu Schadewitz & Jonas Spohr, 2022. "Gender diverse boards and goodwill changes: association between accounting conservatism, gender and governance," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(3), pages 757-779, September.
    10. Kara, Alper & Nanteza, Aziidah & Ozkan, Aydin & Yildiz, Yilmaz, 2022. "Board gender diversity and responsible banking during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    11. Yuan Chang & Kun-Tsung Wu & Shu-Hui Lin & Chia-Jung Lin, 2024. "Board gender diversity and corporate social responsibility," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 1-29, December.
    12. Marisetty, Vijaya B. & Kommatt, Athira, 2025. "Board gender diversity and accounting conservatism," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 104(PA).
    13. Eugster, Nicolas & Kowalewski, Oskar & Śpiewanowski, Piotr, 2024. "Internal governance mechanisms and corporate misconduct," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    14. Aiyang Yin & Yun Shen & Liang Han, 2026. "Is the capital market walking the walk on board gender diversity? Evidence from stock price crash risk," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 66(3), pages 1215-1252, April.
    15. Belete J. Bobe & Ralph Kober, 2020. "Does gender matter? The association between gender and the use of management control systems and performance measures," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(3), pages 2063-2098, September.
    16. Arnaboldi, F. & Casu, B. & Gallo, A. & Kalotychou, E. & Sarkisyan, A., 2021. "Gender diversity and bank misconduct," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    17. Garcia-Blandon, Josep & Josep Maria, Argilés-Bosch & Diego, Ravenda, 2024. "Female directors and the firm's cost of debt: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 224-232.
    18. Sila, Vathunyoo & Gonzalez, Angelica & Hagendorff, Jens, 2016. "Women on board: Does boardroom gender diversity affect firm risk?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 26-53.
    19. Fang, Sheng & Goh, Chorching & Roberts, Mark & Xu, Lixin Colin & Zeufack, Albert, 2022. "Female entrepreneurs and productivity around the world: Rule of law, network, culture, and gender equality," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    20. Liu, Chelsea, 2018. "Are women greener? Corporate gender diversity and environmental violations," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 118-142.
    21. Doan, Trang & Iskandar-Datta, Mai, 2020. "Are female top executives more risk-averse or more ethical? Evidence from corporate cash holdings policy," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 161-176.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ami:journl:v:24:y:2025:i:1:p:173-202. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Cristina Tartavulea (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.