The moderating effect of social responsibility on the relationship between investment and performance with emphasis on factors based on agency theory

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of social responsibility on the relationship between investment and performance of firms and the managerial compensation incentives, stakeholder engagement and government ownership as factors based on the agency theory. The research method is quasi-experimental and the number of 127 firms in Iran Stock Exchange for the period of 1390 to 1396 were selected as the sample of study. Regression analysis based on panel data was used to test the hypotheses. Research results show that social responsibility reduces the sensitivity of investment to performance. Also, the effect of this variable on the sensitivity of investment to performance is stronger for firms with weak managerial compensation incentives and higher stakeholder engagement, but weaker for government companies.