Are CSR and advertising complements or substitutes in spurring firm visibility? Moderating effect of board diversity, CSR committees, and financial slack

This paper examines corporate social responsibility (CSR) and advertising as two firm visibility channels and tests their complementarity/substitution. The study extends the investigation with moderating variables, including board gender diversity, CSR committees, and financial slack. Using a sample that includes 53,835 firm-year observations worldwide associated with 10 business sectors from 2007 to 2019, we find that CSR performance is negatively associated with advertising; this holds for the aggregate CSR score as well as for environmental and social pillars but not for the governance pillar. This implies that two visibility channels-namely CSR and advertising-are substitutes except for the governance dimension. Furthermore, female directors do not advocate for the two visibility channels but instead are proponents of one, in line with the agency cost approach. However, CSR committees fully promote two communication channels supported by the composite and three individual pillars of CSR. Finally, financial slack matters in utilizing two publicity channels concurrently. The findings show that several contingencies must be taken into account to improve companies' visibility while avoiding exacerbating agency costs for better business management.