Corporate Social Responsibility and Managerial Compensation: Further Evidence from Spanish Listed Companies

Fabián Blanes, Cristina De Fuentes and Rubén Porcuna
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Fabián Blanes: Accountancy Department, Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Cristina De Fuentes: Accountancy Department, Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Rubén Porcuna: Accountancy Department, Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia, 46022 Valencia, Spain

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 13, 1-21

Abstract: Ongoing regulatory efforts aim to link managerial compensation with a firm’s performance. However, little is known about whether and how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goals are considered in the design of the managerial compensation scheme. This paper addresses this research question by analyzing a sample of Spanish listed firms for the period spanning 2013–2018. The outcomes of the regressions suggest that there is a positive relationship between CSR and the managerial compensation, but this relationship is significant only with lower levels of CSR. The study also reveals that CSR is positively associated with the proportion of equity-based compensation and, therefore, negatively associated with the proportion of cash-based compensation. In all, our results suggest that firms with lower levels of CSR, likely following social pressures, seek to improve their investments in CSR; and, in doing so, they design a managerial compensation scheme that incentivizes the manager to meet the firm’s goals related to CSR investments. Hence, since CSR is associated with an increase in the long-term firm’s value, the equity-based component of the managerial scheme is higher than in the remaining firms. However, the high proportion of cash-based compensation is far from the desirable goals promoted by the Governance Codes.

Keywords: managerial compensation; corporate social responsibility; CEO compensation; executive compensation; compensation structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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