How Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect Corporate Climate Change Risks? The Moderating Role of <scp>CEOs</scp> Green Experience

ABSTRACT Despite a growing body of research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) as the subject, little is known about how CSR can affect firms' climate change risks. This paper investigates whether CSR helps companies mitigate corporate climate change risks (CCR) using a large sample of China firm‐year observations from 2010 to 2022. Data were analyzed using the OLS baseline regression. Additionally, this study examines the influence of CEOs green experience in moderating the association between CSR and CCR. These findings reveal that CSR has a direct positive impact on mitigating CCR, suggesting that companies could allocate more resources to CSR activities to address these risks effectively. Furthermore, this study provides evidence that CEOs green experience positively moderates the impact of CSR on CCR. This suggests that firms interested in environmental responsibility may be more inclined to hire CEOs with green experience. The baseline results are robust to a set of econometric validation tests, such as PSM and GMM tests. The study offers theoretical and practical insights to assist regulators and corporations in mitigating CCR to promote sustainable development.