TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between a chief finance officer's (CFO's) financial expertise and corporate social responsibility (CSR).Design/methodology/approach– The paper's sample consists of firms from the 2005 S&P 500 Index. Data on CSR come from Kinder, Lydenberg, and Domini (KLD), Inc. Data on CFO financial expertise were had collected. Consistent with prior research, experience (tenure), education (masters of business administration degree), and professional experience (certified public accountant designation) are used to measure the CFO's financial expertise.Findings– Using a sample of S&P 500 firms from 2005, it is found that CFO experience (measured by tenure) is positively related to CSR at a significant level. In addition, the results indicate that CSR activities are not related to the CFO's education (measured as a Master's of Business Administration degree) or accounting expertise (measured as certified public accountant designation). The findings suggest that CFOs with more experience engage in more CSR activities than CFOs with less experience.Originality/value– This study is valuable for several reasons: First, the study contributes to both the CSR literature and the CFO financial expertise literature by delivering new evidence on the link between CFO financial expertise and corporate social responsibility. Second, the study provides useful information to boards of directors, corporations and investors on certain CFO characteristics associated with effective CSR. Third, the study provides empirical evidence to support the suggested shift in the CFO's role from accountant to co‐driver of a firm's long‐term strategy. VL - 55 IS - 3 SN - 1754-243X DO - 10.1108/17542431311327619 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/17542431311327619 AU - Sun Li AU - Rakhman Fuad PY - 2013 Y1 - 2013/01/01 TI - CFO financial expertise and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from S&P 500 companies T2 - International Journal of Law and Management PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 161 EP - 172 Y2 - 2024/04/26 ER -