**3.2 The board diversity**

Board diversity in large companies plays a crucial role in the decision-making process. Indeed, the directors' attributes such as gender, nationality, age, educational level and independency mediate the innovation-CSR linkage [17, 75].

The gender diversity more specifically the gender equality, which is one of the CSR components, forms a responsible innovation pillar, according to the European Commission report.4 Several previous studies stressed that female directors are more risk-averse and avoid risky investments [76]. Thus, they invest less in innovation. Nevertheless, this risk aversion is influenced by the female manager experience. With their specific knowledge and higher flexibility [77], women presence on the board creates complementarity which promotes innovation. Elstad and Ladegard [78] underlined that the presence of women on the board influences the decision- making dynamism. Attia et al. [79] pointed out that gender diversity can enhance corporate product innovation. The presence of women can create better interaction and greater complementarity between R&D teams.

Another pillar of responsible innovation is the Governance dimension. The CSR-governance is associated with the presence of independent directors. Besides, the presence of foreign directors provides greater community involvement [80]. These criteria reflect the company's transparency and social performance, which affect the stakeholders' trust and reduces corporate risk and consequently improves innovation. According to Attia et al. [79], independent directors' presence fosters the innovation intensity and process innovation.

The educational level also is one of the board diversity forms. Haniffa and Cooke [81] focused on the ethnic and cultural background of the board's members. They argued that a higher educational level is associated with better stakeholders understanding. This understanding helps the board members to predict the adequate innovation fields. Moreover, a higher educational level provides a better knowledge, which foster innovation.

<sup>4</sup> Options for Strengthening Responsible Research and Innovation 2014. https://ec.europa.eu/research/ science-society/document\_library/pdf\_06/options-for-strengthening\_en.pdf

#### **3.3 Human dimension, knowledge and innovation in the fourth revolution area**

Digitalization has been speeded since the ending of the 20th century. This development presented the trigger of the fourth industrial revolution. A revolution based on the interaction and the fusion of the real sphere, the digital sphere, and the biological one. What makes this revolution exceptional is its high speed that has no historical precedent. With an exponential rather than a linear pace, industries in every region have to update their systems of management, production and governance to face the depth of the environmental changes [82]. The world economic forum [83] project aims to accelerate sustainable production. This project is based on using innovation to drive efficiency, decreases the environmental damages, boost competitiveness and enhancing the human well-being. Hence, to reach this goal, shaping future production and promoting new levels of collaborations is required. Through the interactions between the different interested actors, an informational and knowledge exchange process occurs, which in turn generates greater innovations [84]. Soto-Acosta et al. [85] pointed out that digital technologies created new tools of communication that can enhance the management of knowledge and the corporate network. Besides, they focused on open innovation importance. Indeed, collaborating or including stakeholders in the decision-making process helps to open the company's view [86]. Hence, it boosts the social strategic engagement while improving innovative capacities. Moreover, corporate innovation interacts with the management systems. Singh et al. [87] claimed that transformational leadership increases the employees' motivation and enhances their communication which helps them to realize their green potentialities and boost green innovation, thereby ensuring their competitive position. Del Giudice et al. [88] presented a detailed analysis of human resources management and the open innovation link in modern enterprises. Human dimensions are pivots of innovativeness and social and ecological commitment. Projects such as CAYLEY, FlaxPreg, VOILIN, and so on are great examples that show the vital role of collaboration, inclusion and networks enhancement to generate sustainable innovative projects and to improve creativity.

With the fast evolvement of the corporate framework and under the fourth revolution circumstances, new industries are emerging while others are fading. Hence, having better knowledge will enhance corporate abilities to predict future development. Nevertheless, having knowledge does not grant its efficient use. Del Giudice et al. [89] pointed out the importance of collaboration and information sharing in enhancing knowledge use. They shed light on the role played by new technologies in harmonizing the corporate knowledge needs and the informational flows.

### **4. Empirical study**

The dynamism of the CSR conception was one of the reasons that explain the CSR-innovation ambiguous link. According to Vishwanathan et al. [18], the corporate innovative capacity should present one of the strategic CSR pillars. Hence, assuming a positive linear link between CSR and innovation is expected if the CSR measure is a strategic one. In our investigation, we attempt to extend the previous studies by using a more flexible semi-parametric model to seize the shape of the innovation effect on the CSR index. This method relaxes the econometric assumptions, thereby, grants more accurate results that are inspired by reality. We use the ESG index and its components to measure CSR, while we consider the natural logarithm of patents as the innovation proxy. The aim of this study is to verify whether the current ESG index and its components reflect strategic CSR measures.

#### *CSR and Innovation: Two Sides of the Same Coin DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94344*

Put differently, how can companies include CSR in their strategies and orient their innovativeness toward the social and ecological commitment, thereby, generate innovative projects that create shared value. Our main assumptions are:

H: The corporate innovativeness does not affect CSR linearly. Thus, CSR is not always presented in the core of the companies strategies.

To reach our goal, this section will be as flows. First, we present our sample and data. Second, the variables descriptions followed the methodology and Model. Finally, we present and analyze the empirical results.
