The impact of CEO’s attributes on R&D intensity and ESG practices

This study examines the impact of CEO attributes on R&D intensity and the mediating role of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practice on the aforementioned relationship. We concentrate on international companies listed on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), from six geographical regions, which followed ESG practices, adapted from the international standards of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) from 2016 to 2017. Our results show a significant positive association between CEO education and R&D intensity; indicating that R&D intensity is higher when CEOs have a higher level of education. Our findings also report that CEO duality is negatively associated with R&D intensity. However, CEO age is not associated with R&D intensity. Further, we suggest that CEO education and CEO duality have partial mediation effects through mediation path analysis, and that the CSR committee positively influences the proposed model. The present study contributes to the prior literature by examining the mediating effect of ESG practice on the link between different CEOs’ attributes and R&D intensity.