Moderating role of internal factors in corporate social responsibility reporting persistence and corporate market value

The primary purpose of this study is to explore the internal drivers (i.e., board monitoring, financial slack, and shareholder-orientedness) of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting persistence over the years and to test the value relevance of CSR reporting persistence. We also investigate whether internal factors moderate the relationship between CSR reporting persistence and corporate market value. The study draws on a sample of 52,948 observations between 2002 and 2021, and a country-industry-year fixed effect regression was executed. The results indicate that board monitoring, financial slack, and shareholder-orientedness all predict CSR reporting persistence. We also find that CSR reporting persistence enhances corporate market value, and board monitoring, financial slack, and shareholder-orientedness positively moderate the relationship between CSR reporting persistence and corporate market value. The findings are largely robust to the instrumental variable probit regression, entropy balancing, propensity score matching, alternative firm value proxy, alternative samples, and pre- and post-European Union Directive 95/2014 periods.