The relationship between CEO psychological biases, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility

Despite that the relationship between corporate social responsibility activities and real estate operations seems relevant, only some studies have been conducted to explore the reasons that drive these activities in real estate companies. This work presents the relationship between CEO personality traits and corporate social responsibility (CSR) and shows whether corporate governance (CG) practices mitigate or enhance this relationship. This study uses a sample of 420 firm-year-observations using a sample of European real estate firms indexed on Stoxx Europe 600 Index from 2010 to 2019. To test the developed hypotheses, feasible generalized least square (FGLS) regression is applied. The results show that increased confidence in CEOs is an important factor in determining corporate incentives to undertake social responsibility activities. In addition, it has been shown that effective corporate governance practices lead significantly to moderate CEO behavior with regard to corporate social responsibility sharing. Since corporate governance can have a significant impact on CEOs’ behavior in relation to corporate social responsibility, the author recommends firms to improve corporate governance in listed European real estate companies.