Mutual fund investment and corporate social responsibility: evidence from Korea

Abstract

This paper examines the monitoring role of mutual funds by empirically testing whether mutual fund investment enhances firms' corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance. Using Korean public companies as a sample, we find that firms' CSR performance, measured by Korea Economic Justice Institute (KEJI) index scores, increases as they receive investments from mutual funds. Further analysis also shows that there exists a strong association between mutual fund investments and their contribution to society. We confirm that these results are robust to different specifications of research design and after controlling for chaebol affiliation.