Determinants of CSR Practices : Influence of Ownership and Mediator Effect of Top Management

The purpose of this paper is to study the relevance of ownership and CEOs' characteristics in the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Specifically, it is proposed that ownership structure characterised by the presence of large shareholders is related to CSR activities and that such relationship may be mediated by the CEOs' profile in accordance to the Agency-Stewardship approach. The results of a mediation analysis on a sample of 101 companies in Spain show that those with a higher ownership concentration tend to be run by managers whose profile is closer to the steward than the agent model and to be more involved in CSR activities. Our findings also support the existence of the suggested mediating effect. This paper goes further than existing research on owners and top managers as determinants of CSR and unveils new ways to address this topic empirically