This paper aims to examine how chief executive officer (CEO) dominance is associated with a firm’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement, and whether the board gender diversity moderates this relationship. We use a two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) to analyze this relationship in a sample of 700 firm-year observations from FTSE 100 listed companies covering the period from 2008 to 2017. This study shows that CEO dominance is negatively associated with CSR engagement, and that the board gender diversity is positively moderated this relationship. Our study finds evidence supporting both the critical mass theory and the upper echelons theory, and suggests that a high proportion of female in the board of directors may reduce the CEO dominance, as a key player in the top management team, and increase the CSR engagement. These results are robust to alternative econometric specifications and variable definitions. This study differs from previous studies in that we introduce the board gender diversity as a moderator of the relationship between CEO dominance and CSR engagement in the UK context.
