Board Diversity and Corporate Social Performance during COVID-19: Empirical Evidence from Firms Listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange

The effects of the dreadful Covid-19 pandemic have generated interest in the need for companies to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) when confronted with natural crises. This study aims to examine the impact of corporate board diversity on CSP against the background of the Covid-19 crisis. In this study, a CSP scoring indexing tool is developed. To test the relation between corporate board diversity and CSP the study estimates panel least squares (PLS) and validates the test results with dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) and robust least squares (RLS) estimations on a sample of 49 ZSE listed firms from 2012 to 2021. To test the Covid-19 implications, PLS estimations are run for two sample periods: the Covid-19 period (2019-2021) and the normal period (2012-2018). The study established that the level of CSP and female directors among ZSE-listed firms is still very low at an average of 30% and 37% respectively. The study results show the existence of strong relationships between corporate board diversity attributes under study and CSP. Female directors are found to significantly influence CSP, and the effect is more pronounced during Covid-19.