Corporate governance, audit committee characteristics and corporate social responsibility: moderating role of family ownership

Purpose Corporate governance and audit committee characteristics are important factors in shaping corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices, as they provide oversight, transparency and strategic guidance to align firm activities with social responsibilities. Furthermore, the presence of family ownership focuses on a long-term strategic orientation that can impact CSR. This study aims to investigate the impact of corporate governance and audit committee characteristics on CSR activities with moderating effect of family ownership. Design/methodology/approach The study uses panel data of 736 listed nonfinancial firms from Asian emerging economies over the period from 2010 to 2024. The current study uses fixed effect as the main model for testing hypotheses. However, the dynamic panel GMM approach is used to control for potential endogeneity issues and to verify the reliability and robustness of the primary results. Findings The empirical findings reveal that board size, board independence and board effectiveness have a positive, whereas CEO duality has a negative and significant impact on CSR activities. However, the study further finds that audit committee size, audit committee activities and audit committee independence significantly increase CSR activities. Originality/value This study contributes to the body of knowledge while taking the moderating role of family ownership in strengthening the effects of corporate governance and audit committee on CSR. Furthermore, the study provides significance including audit committee characteristics into the corporate governance structure to evaluate their combined impacts on CSR in Asian emerging economies covering a comprehensive time period.