The nonlinear effect of executive compensation on corporate social responsibility performance

Purpose – Taking cues from the fact that there remains a dearth in the establishment of theoretical and empirical relationship between executive compensation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance of the firms, this study attempts to explore the non-linear relationship between the said variables. Design/methodology/approach – The study utilizes a strongly balanced panel data set of 179 non-financial National Stock Exchange (NSE) 500 listed firms for the study period of 2015–2020. The study further employs both static as well as Arellano-Bond dynamic panel model under generalized method of moments (GMM) framework to establish the relationship between executive compensation and CSR performance of the sampled firms. Findings – The study acknowledges an inverted U-shaped relationship between executive compensation and environmental, social and governance (ESG) score of the firms. According to the robust estimator, an increase in the level of executive compensation is said to affect CSR performance positively until it surpasses a threshold level of 18.7 percent. Practical implications – One of the major takeaways that the study provides for the corporate policymakers is that the level of compensation can only motivate the executives to take up socially responsible work up to a certain level surpassing which the executives becomes resistant towards any benefits provided by the CSR performance and get inclined towards economical performances of the firm. At the later stage, the economical expansionary investment benefits overweigh the personal career benefit gained by the executives from the CSR performances of the firm. Originality/value – The nonlinearity relationship between executive compensation and CSR performance and the threshold level providing the two-fold effect of compensation on the CSR performance of the firms attempted by this study is a rare attempt in an emerging economy like India.