Can Women Save a Man’s World? The Influence of Gender-Discriminating Institutions on Female Family CEOs’ CSR Performance

Abstract Does CEO gender affect family firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR)? And does this relationship vary between countries based on different levels of social and legal gender bias? Drawing on insights from the literature on female leadership and CSR, we utilize social role theory and institutional theory to explore these issues empirically based on a sample of 1555 family firms from 29 countries. We find that family firms led by female CEOs perform better on both internal and external CSR. However, this relationship is contingent on the social and legal institutional environment. The positive effect of female CEOs is strongest in contexts of legal gender equality and, interestingly, a negative social bias against women.