IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v84y2025ics1544612325010256.html

Does the participation of female directors enhance corporate social responsibility and risk taking?

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Liuqing
  • Kang, Jiani

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of female board directors on corporate social responsibility and risk-taking behavior using A-share listed companies as the research sample. The results show that the participation of female directors contributes to the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility and an increase in risk-taking levels. Specifically, enhancing corporate transparency is the pathway through which female directors improve corporate social responsibility, while their influence on risk-taking behavior strengthens as financial stability improves. Finally, the study conducts a heterogeneity analysis, revealing that the development environment faced by a company leads to variations in the role of female directors.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Liuqing & Kang, Jiani, 2025. "Does the participation of female directors enhance corporate social responsibility and risk taking?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:84:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325010256
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.107767
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325010256
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.107767?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yu, Zhi & Wang, Qun & Zhao, Xiangfang & Zhao, Qiong, 2025. "Do female executives play a role in corporate green business philosophy?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    2. Ren, Xingzi & Li, Jiarong & Wang, Xing & Lei, Xingfan, 2024. "Female directors and CSR: Does the presence of female directors affect CSR focus?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    3. Sun, Zixiong & Anderson, Hamish & Chi, Jing, 2023. "Managerial foreign experience and corporate risk-taking: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Ahmad, Sardar & Akbar, Saeed & Halari, Anwar & Shah, Syed Zubair, 2021. "Organizational non-compliance with principles-based governance provisions and corporate risk-taking," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    5. Ouyang, Xiaoling & Yang, Yuchuan & Du, Kerui, 2024. "Impact of CSR on stock return resilience during the 2020 public health emergency: Evidence from the Chinese financial market," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    6. He, Feng & Ding, Cong & Yue, Wei & Liu, Guanchun, 2023. "ESG performance and corporate risk-taking: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. Wen, Chufu & Wen, Fenghua & Lin, Diyue & Zhao, Lili, 2024. "Multinational corporations and share pledging of the controlling shareholder," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    8. Abou-El-Sood, Heba, 2021. "Board gender diversity, power, and bank risk taking," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    9. Gaies, Brahim & Jahmane, Abderrahmane, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility, financial globalization and bank soundness in Europe – Novel evidence from a GMM panel VAR approach," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    10. Trinh, Vu Quang & Trinh, Hai Hong & Nguyen, Thi Hong Hanh & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2023. "Board gender diversity and firm-level climate change exposure: A global perspective," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PB).
    11. Zhou, Mengling & Jiang, Kangqi & Chen, Zhongfei, 2022. "Temperature and corporate risk taking in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    12. Bitetto, Alessandro & Cerchiello, Paola & Mertzanis, Charilaos, 2023. "Measuring financial soundness around the world: A machine learning approach," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    13. Dai, Liyan & Song, Chengxuan & You, Yu & Zhang, Wenqiao, 2022. "Do sovereign wealth funds value ESG engagement? Evidence from target firm's CSR performance," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    14. Long, Houyin & Lai, Guansen & Jiang, Jiaoliang & Liu, Ruonan, 2025. "The impact of top-down amplification of economic growth targets on CSR performance-evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    15. Blitz, David & Huisman, Rob & Swinkels, Laurens & van Vliet, Pim, 2020. "Media attention and the volatility effect," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 36(C).
    16. Chourou, Lamia & Himick, Darlene & Saadi, Samir, 2023. "Regulatory uncertainty and corporate social responsibility," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PB).
    17. Bhaskar, Ratikant & Li, Peigong & Bansal, Shashank & Kumar, Satish, 2023. "A new insight on CEO characteristics and corporate social responsibility (CSR): A meta-analytical review," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    18. Wang, Tianyu & Yang, Bo, 2023. "Corporate social responsibility, stakeholders’ governance and idiosyncratic risk," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    19. Jiraporn, Pornsit & Chatjuthamard, Pattanaporn & Tong, Shenghui & Kim, Young Sang, 2015. "Does corporate governance influence corporate risk-taking? Evidence from the Institutional Shareholders Services (ISS)," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 13(C), pages 105-112.
    20. Tran, Quoc Trung, 2023. "Employment protection and corporate risk-taking," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    21. Bruna, Maria Giuseppina & Lahouel, Béchir Ben, 2022. "CSR & financial performance: Facing methodological and modeling issues commentary paper to the eponymous FRL article collection," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    22. Ni, Yanbin, 2025. "Female executives and corporate brand competitiveness: The mediating role of corporate social responsibility," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    23. Alatawi, Ibrahim A. & Ntim, Collins G. & Zras, Anis & Elmagrhi, Mohamed H., 2023. "CSR, financial and non-financial performance in the tourism sector: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    24. Hervé, Fabrice & Marsat, Sylvain, 2024. "Like daughter, like father: Female socialization and green equity investment," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    25. Song, Yan & Xiu, Yifan & Zhao, Mengyang & Tian, Ye & Wang, Jingyuan, 2024. "Intellectual property protection and enterprise innovation: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PB).
    26. Nekhili, Mehdi & Nagati, Haithem & Chtioui, Tawhid & Nekhili, Ali, 2017. "Gender-diverse board and the relevance of voluntary CSR reporting," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 81-100.
    27. Bao, Fengnai & Chen, Binger & Chen, Di, 2024. "The impact of local government financing vehicles debt on corporate risk-taking: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    28. Choi, Changhwan & Chung, Chune Young, 2024. "The effect of shale gas booms on environmental CSR activity," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    29. Baatwah, Saeed Rabea & Al-Qadasi, Adel Ali & Al-Shehri, Amer Mohammed & Derouiche, Imen, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility budgeting and spending during COVID–19 in Oman: A humanitarian response to the pandemic," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    30. Khan, Mushtaq Hussain & Fraz, Ahmad & Hassan, Arshad & Abedifar, Pejman, 2020. "Female board representation, risk-taking and performance: Evidence from dual banking systems," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    31. Liu, Ningyue & Laing, Elaine & Cao, Yue & Zhang, Xiaofei, 2018. "Institutional ownership and corporate transparency in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 328-336.
    32. repec:hal:journl:hal-02311979 is not listed on IDEAS
    33. Garcia-Blandon, Josep & Argilés-Bosch, Josep Maria & Ravenda, Diego & Castillo-Merino, David, 2022. "Board gender quotas, female directors and corporate tax aggressiveness: A causal approach," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    34. Tian, Guangning & Li, Bo & Cheng, Yue, 2022. "Does digital transformation matter for corporate risk-taking?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    35. Song, Ciji & Nahm, Abraham Y. & Song, Zengji, 2021. "Entrepreneurs' hobbies and corporate risk taking: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    36. Guo, Heng, 2023. "Enterprise litigation risk and risk taking," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PA).
    37. He, Feng & Qin, Shuqi & Liu, Yuanyuan & Wu, Ji (George), 2022. "CSR and idiosyncratic risk: Evidence from ESG information disclosure," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    38. Liu, Cheng & Gao, Xinyi & Dong, Siyuan, 2024. "Female CEOs’ name gender-neutralization and audit fees: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    39. Rouine, Ibtissem & Ammari, Aymen & Bruna, Maria Giuseppina, 2022. "Nonlinear impacts of CSR performance on firm risk: New evidence using a panel smooth threshold regression," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    40. Wang, Zhenjie & Yang, Yi & Zhang, Jiewei, 2024. "Are female directors more inclined to avoid risks?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    41. Chen, Shen & Chen, Yuran & Zhang, Di & Wang, Jinmei, 2023. "Can minority investor activism promote corporate risk-taking? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    42. Mavruk, Taylan, 2025. "Local CSR, local ownership and firm value," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    43. Ben Hmiden, Oussama & Rjiba, Hatem & Saadi, Samir, 2022. "Competition through environmental CSR engagement and cost of equity capital," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    44. Ding, David K. & Ferreira, Christo & Wongchoti, Udomsak, 2016. "Does it pay to be different? Relative CSR and its impact on firm value," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 86-98.
    45. Hossain, Ashrafee T. & Masum, Abdullah-Al, 2022. "Does corporate social responsibility help mitigate firm-level climate change risk?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    46. Pandej Chintrakarn & Pornsit Jiraporn & Young Kim & Jang-Chul Kim, 2015. "Does corporate governance quality affect analyst coverage? Evidence from the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS)," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(4), pages 312-317, March.
    47. Abinzano, Isabel & Martinez, Beatriz & Poletti-Hughes, Jannine, 2023. "Women in power with power: The influence of meaningful board representation on default risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Li, Gang & Ma, Yan, 2025. "Labor contract law, labor income share, and corporate risk-taking," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PC).
    2. Xu, Jing & Luo, Qianfang, 2025. "Controlling shareholder equity pledging, financing constraints, and corporate social responsibility," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    3. Chen, Dong & Ran, Yan, 2025. "Relationship among regulatory environment, financing constraints, and corporate risk-taking in tourism industry," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Chen, Ying & Gao, Fei, 2024. "The lower the integrity, the higher the risk: how does the lack of corporate integrity exacerbate risk?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    5. Pan, Junyu & Hunjra, Ahmed Imran & Bruna, Maria Giuseppina & Zhao, Shikuan & Bouri, Elie, 2024. "Shaping sustainability: How corporate reputation can be enhanced under climate change conditions," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PA).
    6. Zhao, Rui & Wang, Yining & Lun, Xi & Li, Na & Wang, Rong & Zhang, Yin & Wang, Menglu, 2025. "Enterprise financialization, technological empowerment, and enterprise risk-taking," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Li, Jiawei & Wang, Tiezhi & You, Meiqi, 2024. "Patent pledge and corporate risk-taking: A quasi-natural experiment from China's patent pledge pilot," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    8. Huang, Lilong & Zhuang, Yikun & Dong, Dongdong & Dong, Xueqin, 2025. "Strengthening of financial regulation and financial enterprise risk-taking: Analysis based on threshold effects, subindustry heterogeneity, and the moderating role of firm size," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 104(PA).
    9. Wang, Jinmeiyang & Zhang, Niancong, 2025. "CSR news and public reaction: The moderating effect of individualism," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PB).
    10. He, Feng & Ding, Cong & Yue, Wei & Liu, Guanchun, 2023. "ESG performance and corporate risk-taking: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    11. Bi, Rui & Tang, Zhisong, 2024. "Research on the impact of the 'Double Reduction' policy on the risk-taking of educational training enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PB).
    12. Gozgor, Giray & Ho, Thang & Li, Jing & Mousavi, Mohammad Mahdi, 2024. "The impact of energy diversification on firm performance: The moderating role of corporate social responsibility," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PB).
    13. Hu, Yuge & Dong, Yifei & Paraman, Pradeep, 2025. "Environmental responsibility governance: Local environmental legislation influence on corporate environmental investment decisions," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    14. Wang, Shanyong & Xu, Baolong, 2024. "Environmental protection tax policy and corporate risk-taking: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 96(PA).
    15. Li, Wei-An & Du, Hanyu & He, Feng, 2025. "Mandatory corporate ESG disclosure and default risk – Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    16. Elamer, Ahmed A. & Utham, Vinay, 2024. "Cash is queen? Impact of gender-diverse boards on firms' cash holdings during COVID-19," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 95(PB).
    17. Lin Zheng & Qiguang An & Mu Yang, 2026. "Climate change, corporate risk-taking, and financialization: evidence from Chinese A-share non-financial listed companies," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 28(1), pages 1443-1466, January.
    18. Li, Yu & Bai, Tianpeng & Sha, Ya & Xu, Zitong, 2025. "Concentration of supply chain, internal control, and corporate risk-taking," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    19. Dodd, Olga & Frijns, Bart & Garel, Alexandre, 2022. "Cultural diversity among directors and corporate social responsibility," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    20. Silvia-Andreea Peliu, 2024. "Exploring the impact of ESG factors on corporate risk: empirical evidence for New York Stock Exchange listed companies," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-34, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    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:eee:finlet:v:84:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325010256. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    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.