CSR disclosure and firm performance: The mediating role of corporate reputation and moderating role of CEO integrity

This paper investigates the roles which corporate reputation and CEO integrity play in the relationship between CSR disclosure and firm performance. Analysing a dataset of 3588 firm-year observations of 833 Fortune World Most Admired firms in 31 countries from 2005 to 2011, the paper shows a positive effect of CSR disclosure on firm reputation, which in turn significantly contributes to a firm's financial performance. The paper finds that CEO integrity strengthens the positive impact of CSR disclosure on firm reputation significantly. The findings are consistent across three measures of a firm’s financial performance (Tobin’s Q, ROA and ROE) and three proxies of CEO integrity. The paper offers insight into how corporate reputation and CEO integrity intervene the benefits of CSR disclosure to firm performance and how the lack of consideration of such factors could be the reason for the inconsistent findings in the previous studies.