Internal governance is the process by which vice presidents (VPs) use their influence with the chief executive officer (CEO) to impact the firm's direction and policy. This study examines the effect of internal governance on corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Based on a large sample of US firms and after controlling for various CEO incentives, corporate governance and other determinants of CSR performance, we find that more effective internal governance is associated with a better CSR performance. These results are robust to alternative internal governance and CSR measures, alternative samples and various approaches that mitigate potential endogeneity problems. Further analysis shows that the effect of internal governance on CSR performance is more pronounced when (a) the CEO is subject to more intensive monitoring, (b) VPs are more powerful, (c) firms experience less short-term financial performance pressure and (d) they face stronger product market competition. This study advances our understanding of corporate governance's effect on CSR by showing the importance of internal governance.

中文翻译：

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内部治理与企业社会责任表现

内部治理是副总裁 (VP) 利用其对首席执行官 (CEO) 的影响力来影响公司方向和政策的过程。本研究探讨了内部治理对企业社会责任（CSR）绩效的影响。基于大量美国企业样本，在控制了各种CEO激励、公司治理和企业社会责任绩效的其他决定因素后，我们发现更有效的内部治理与更好的企业社会责任绩效相关。这些结果对于替代内部治理和企业社会责任措施、替代样本和减轻潜在内生性问题的各种方法来说是稳健的。进一步分析表明，在以下情况下，内部治理对企业社会责任绩效的影响更为显着：(a) 首席执行官受到更严格的监控；(b) 副总裁权力更大；(c) 公司面临的短期财务绩效压力较小；以及 ( d) 他们面临更激烈的产品市场竞争。本研究通过展示内部治理的重要性，加深了我们对公司治理对企业社会责任影响的理解。