There has been a growing interest among corporate social responsibility (CSR) scholars to understand how CEO characteristics can affect CSR performance, with an emphasis on characteristics derived from CEOs’ core self-evaluations. Specifically, core self-evaluation refers to individuals’ sense of self-concept. Examples of such self-evaluations include narcissism, overconfidence, and hubris. While this line of research has been valuable in understanding the role of CEOs in CSR, it has disregarded that others’ evaluations of CEOs can also matter to CSR. Meanwhile, prior literature has already suggested that others’ evaluations of CEOs can have implications for various firm behaviors, such as mergers and acquisitions or firm performance. Yet, it is still unclear how others’ appraisals of CEOs can influence CSR, thereby leading to a partial view of how CEOs can affect CSR. To address this gap, we examine how CEO social status - the extent to which an individual or group is respected or admired by other - affects CSR performance. Drawing on social status literature, we argue that CEOs with higher social status can boost CSR performance because they are more attentive to stakeholder demands towards CSR and are more likely to show higher competencies in firms’ CSR strategies. We also theorize that this positive relationship is weakened by CEO tenure and strengthened by board gender diversity. By analyzing CEOs from S&P 1500 firms for the period of 2004 and 2022, we find support for our hypotheses. Our findings highlight the importance of CEO social status, and more broadly, others’ evaluations of CEOs, to CSR.
