Exploration of the Relationship between Corporate Governance and Socially Responsible Investment under the Stakeholder Theory Framework

Abstract

With the global economy transitioning to a sustainable development model, the synergistic development of corporate social responsibility and corporate governance has become a focus of attention in academic and practical circles. This paper takes non-financial listed companies in China's Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2018 to 2022 as research samples, and systematically explores the interaction mechanism between corporate governance and socially responsible investment based on stakeholder theory. The empirical results show that the degree of board diversity significantly positively affects the level of socially responsible investment, while ownership concentration significantly negatively affects the level of socially responsible investment; the improvement of socially responsible investment level can significantly promote the improvement of corporate information disclosure quality; the degree of marketization has a moderating effect in the above relationship, that is, the higher the marketization level, the stronger the promoting effect of board diversity on socially responsible investment, and the weaker the inhibiting effect of ownership concentration. The study provides empirical evidence and policy implications for enterprises to improve their socially responsible investment capabilities by optimizing governance structures and for regulatory authorities to improve market-oriented mechanisms.