Board effectiveness and corporate social responsibility in light of cultural dimensions: what changed during the COVID-19 pandemic?

We examine whether board effectiveness influences CSR during the unprecedented COVID-19 period, against the backdrop of cultural dimensions. Using a balanced sample consisting of 3,261 unique firms (6,522 firm years) from 49 countries, we show that an effective board increases environmental and social performance in the period before and during COVID-19. However, the results indicate that board effectiveness has a weaker positive impact on environmental and social performance during the COVID-19 period relative to the period before the crisis. The findings with respect to cultural dimensions show that CSR performance is higher in collective and feminine countries and those with low power distribution and high uncertainty avoidance. However, the cultural dimensions-CSR relationship is not impacted by the pandemic. The study relied solely on Hofstede's cultural dimension as cultural scores. Researchers could consider other scores to capture the effect of culture, such as Globes' cultural scores and Gray's accounting values. The findings are useful to policymakers, as they prompt them to pay attention to board effectiveness to determine CSR performance during or after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study provides international comprehensive evidence by investigating the board's effectiveness on CSR with the effects of cultural dimensions before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.