CSR managers and ESG performance: an empirical research

Nowadays, companies are definitively responsible for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues. Thus, they strive to build sustainable manage-ment systems by institutionalizing the governance bodies of Chief Sustaina-bility Officer (CSO) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) committee. However, although scholars have devoted many efforts to understanding how corporate governance, in general, and board characteristics, in particular, are crucial to CSR performance, the role that these specific CSR bodies play in ESG performance remains less explored. Therefore, grounding our hypotheses on the legitimacy theory, the study aims to examine the effect of the presence of CSOs and CSR committees on ESG performance, in terms of company reputation. To this end, the research considers both the presence and the score of the ESG Global Perception Index of all non-financial companies listed on the Milan Stock Exchange at the end of 2019. The results of our regression models suggest that both CSO and CSR committees positively affect ESG rat-ings. Indeed, they guide the board to promote ESG strategies, enhancing the sustainability reputation of companies. In doing so, the study offers several contributions to both theory and practice.