Purpose: This study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance, in particular board diversity, and corporate social performance (CSP) amongst the top 500 listed companies in India.Design/methodology/approach: Data from the top 500 listed Indian companies constituting the BSE500 index for a five-year period from 1 April 2014 to 31 March 2019 are used to test the impact of the proportion of women directors, proportion of women independent directors, female CEOs and other corporate governance variables on CSP.Findings: The results of panel regression analysis suggest that firms characterised by high proportions of women directors, independent women directors or a female CEO spend more on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Furthermore, CEO duality, board size and board independence are positively related to social performance. These findings are of relevance to the policymakers and board of directors who are engaged in meeting corporate governance requirements.Practical implications: This is one of the initial studies to document the impact of executive-level female representation on CSP following India's 2013 regulations on mandatory women representation on boards and CSR expenditure. The study reveals that greater gender diversity on corporate boards significantly boosts CSP, offering strategic advantages in governance and CSR. The study offers practical benefits for various stakeholders including corporate regulators, policymakers and corporate managers.Originality/value: The paper contributes to the corporate governance and CSR literature by showing that good governance practices and high women representation on boards promote social performance. Our study is one of the preliminary efforts to document the level and impact of female representation at the executive level on CSP after the regulation of minimum women representation on corporate boards and mandatory CSR expenditure requirement introduced in India in 2013.

The study analyses the impact of financial reputation on the cost of debt financing for Indian companies. In doing so, panel regression analysis is performed using firm-specific data on 395 Indian listed firms covering 2002–2017. The paper uses market capitalization as a benchmark of financial reputation. For robustness check, excess of market value over book value is also used as a proxy of financial reputation. The study found that the reputation of a firm in financial markets plays a vital role in determining the cost of financing. The results provide evidence supporting a significant negative relationship between financial reputation and the cost of debt. The findings provide motivation for corporate managers to invest in reputation-building activities to reduce the cost of borrowing. The relevance of reputation in lowering the cost of debt capital has garnered limited attention, especially in emerging economies like India. This study is a preliminary attempt to link two strands of research in the Indian context: financial reputation and the cost of debt.

The purpose of the present study is to examine the influence of family management on R&D investments of Indian companies. Panel regression analysis is undertaken on the data of top 200 Indian companies (the final sample got reduced to 179 companies) listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) over a period of 5 years from 2015 to 2019. The results reveal that family management supports R&D investments. The presence of family members on top management positions have a significant positive influence for both capital R&D expenditures and revenue R&D expenses. Given the restructuring of Indian corporate governance system, the findings recommend continual of family management as Indian way of management as it actively supports research and development investments thereby significantly influencing growth of the firm. The non-family members must support the strategic envision of family managers as the latter are more emotionally linked with the firm. The study contributes to the existing literature by examining the impact of family management on capital R&D expenditures and revenue R&D expenditures separately to gain meaningful insights about the attitude of family owners towards R&D investment decisions.