The role of the audit committee on ESG performance of non-financial firms listed on the French CAC 40

This article explores the effect of audit committee characteristics on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance of French-listed non-financial firms on the CAC 40 index from 2018 to 2022—a period capturing the COVID-19 pandemic. While investors and regulators are paying more attention to ESG performance, there has been little attention paid to the role of internal governance mechanisms, particularly audit committees, in shaping ESG performance in continental European environments. Drawing from agency theory, stakeholder theory, and legitimacy theory, the study examines the influence of four widely researched audit committee attributes—namely, independence, financial expertise, tenure, and gender diversity on ESG performance. The research utilizes ESG scores provided by Refinitiv and employs generalized least squares (GLS) regression to account for panel-level heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation. Firm-level controls include profitability, leverage, size, and board structure. The results indicate that audit committee independence and women’s involvement are strong and positive predictors of ESG performance. In contrast, financial expertise shows a positive but non-significant association, while tenure exhibits a negative yet non-significant relationship. The study highlights the strategic importance of independent and diverse corporate governance in fostering sustainability performance, especially in a crisis context. This article contributes to the existing literature on ESG governance by focusing on the under-researched French context and providing empirical evidence of the audit substructures’ role in crisis resilience. This study offers novel empirical evidence on the impact of audit committee independence and gender diversity on ESG performance in the under-explored French CAC 40 context, reflecting its distinct governance and regulatory environment. It also contributes by examining these relationships across pre- and post-pandemic periods, providing fresh insights into the role of internal governance in sustaining corporate resilience during crises.