Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>This study aims to empirically investigate the relationship between board gender diversity on corporate boards and corporate social responsibility of Sharīʿah compliant firms (firms adhering to Islamic rules of business). Specifically, the relationship between board gender diversity and four dimensions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) including environmental CSR, customer CSR, community CSR and employee CSR have been examined. Data from all firms in Karachi-Meezan Index (KMI-30) of Sharīʿah compliant firms of Pakistan for a time period of 10 years i.e. 2008-2019 has been used for analysis. Different estimation techniques including Pooled OLS (P-OLS), Fixed effect regression (FE), Random effect regression (RE) and dynamic panel data estimation technique i.e. generalized methods of moment (GMM) have been employed. Overall, our results of pooled OLS and fixed effect regression show that the presence of women on boards of Sharīʿah compliant firms has a positive influence towards overall corporate social responsibility and all its sub-dimensions i.e. environmental CSR, customer CSR, community CSR and employee CSR. The results of GMM confirm the robustness of the estimates. These results provide new evidence for the relationship between board gender diversity and CSR from different set of firms and Eastern context. The results also point towards the importance of women on boards of Sharīʿah compliant firms in context of social performance of these firms. Policymakers of Sharīʿah complaint firms should thus enhance the presence of women on corporate boards.</p>