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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the direct and indirect links between corporate governance and sustainability performance using corporate social responsibility. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a sample consisting of 300 UK firms over the 2005–2017 period. This study applied structural equations models that specify both a direct and an indirect link between corporate governance and sustainability performance. Findings The authors find that corporate governance has a positive effect on sustainability performance. In addition, this study shows that corporate social responsibility fully mediates the relationship between corporate governance and sustainability performance in UK firms. Practical implications This study shows that firms are invited to engage more in sustainability performance and corporate social responsibility activities, which reduces agency conflicts between managers and shareholders. Originality/value To the authors’ knowledge, no research studies examined empirically the direct and indirect relationship between corporate governance and sustainability performance. Therefore, the main contribution of this research is to show how corporate governance effectiveness leads to higher corporate social responsibility level and sustainability performance using two analyses methods (mediator analysis and multiple mediator analysis).

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effect of two CEO characteristics, namely, narcissism and overconfidence on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the moderating effect of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms in the UK. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of 2,360 UK firms listed on the FTSE 400 index for the years 2010–2017, the feasible generalized least squares method was applied to test the hypotheses developed. Findings The finding argues that CEO narcissism and overconfidence positively affect CSR. In addition, this paper found that CG effectiveness moderates the CEO’s CSR behavior. Research limitations/implications This research is subjected to two limitations. First, this study used different measures to proxy for CEO narcissism and overconfidence. However, other measures are not included owing to the difficulty to collect data regarding these measures. Second, this study includes only CSR performance instead of all other dimensions and categories of CSR. These limitations do not change the conclusions of this research, and they may provide guidance for further investigations. Practical implications Given that the CEOs psychological and behavioral features are critical in understanding CSR, shareholders and boards of directors should incorporate the behavioral aspects of narcissistic and overconfident CEOs in the design of CSR strategy. Originality/value This study emphasizes the importance of top executives’ psychological characteristics for CSR, which is a key application and complements the “upper echelons theory” and fills the research gap in the literature. This is one of the few studies that investigate the interaction between CG, CEO profile and CSR.

Cet article vise à examiner empiriquement comment la performance durable modère la relation entre l’évasion fiscale et la RSE par le biais de la diversité du genre au sein des conseils d’administration. La modélisation par équation structurelle est appliquée pour tester la relation entre la performance durable, la RSE et l’évasion fiscale pour un ensemble de données de panel de 300 entreprises britanniques répertoriées au cours de la période 2005-2017. Les résultats montrent que la performance durable modère la relation entre l’évitement de l’impôt et la RSE. Ainsi, cette étude démontre empiriquement que les entreprises ayant des activités de performance durable sont mieux placées pour obtenir plus de transparence en réduisant l’évasion fiscale. L’originalité de cet article consiste à proposer la mise en place de liens directs et indirects entre performance durable, RSE et évasion fiscale.

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