Governing the Responsible Investment of Slack Resources in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Performance: How Beneficial are CSR Committees?

Title data

Heubeck, Tim ; Ahrens, Annina:
Governing the Responsible Investment of Slack Resources in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Performance: How Beneficial are CSR Committees?
In: Journal of Business Ethics. (2024) .
ISSN 1573-0697
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-024-05798-6

Official URL:

Abstract in another language

Possessing slack resources enables businesses to invest in innovative and stakeholder-focused initiatives. Therefore, we posit that higher slack resources encourage businesses to allocate these resources to improve their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Moreover, as a central sustainability governance mechanism, we hypothesize that the corporate social responsibility (CSR) committee supports investing slack resources in ESG initiatives. Using data from Nasdaq-100 firms, we find initial support for a positive effect of slack resources for ESG. However, further analyses reveal that slack resources become detrimental to ESG after an economically relevant threshold, indicating an inverted U-shaped effect of slack resources. Additionally, despite their generally positive effect, we uncover that CSR committees cannot effectively enhance the benefits of low or moderate slack levels for ESG nor prevent the detriments of elevated slack levels for ESG. Therefore, our study significantly contributes to the ongoing discourse surrounding slack resources, ESG, and the usefulness of CSR committees. These findings hold significant implications for ethical resource allocation, urging firms and their decision-makers to reconsider the dual-edged role of slack resources in the unique ESG context and support the CSR committee in realizing its potential for promoting sustainability and ethical practices within the organization.

Further data

Item Type:	Article in a journal
Refereed:	Yes
Keywords:	CSR committee; ESG performance; Slack resources
Institutions of the University:	Faculties > Faculty of Law, Business and Economics > Department of Business Administration > Chair Business Administration IX - International Management > Chair Business Administration IX - International Management - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Reinhard Meckl Faculties Faculties > Faculty of Law, Business and Economics Faculties > Faculty of Law, Business and Economics > Department of Business Administration Faculties > Faculty of Law, Business and Economics > Department of Business Administration > Chair Business Administration IX - International Management
Result of work at the UBT:	Yes
DDC Subjects:	300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
Date Deposited:	15 Aug 2024 05:14
Last Modified:	02 Sep 2024 05:45
URI:	https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/90202