The impact of chief sustainability officer on sustainability performance: a mediation role of corporate governance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to argue the relationship between chief sustainability officer, sustainability performance and corporate governance. Specifically, this paper aims to empirically examine the mediation role of corporate governance on the relationship between chief sustainability officer and sustainability performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study sample includes 484 European companies that were listed on STOXX Europe 600 index between 2010 and 2022. There are 15 supersectors and 17 nations.FindingsResults of this study show that the profile of chief sustainability officer has a positive impact on sustainability performance. In addition, the corporate governance mediates the relationship between chief sustainability officer and sustainability performance.Practical implicationsThe findings may be of interest to the academic researchers, investors and regulators. For academic researchers, the results would be interesting in discovering the dynamic relation between chief sustainability officer, sustainability performance and corporate governance. For investors, these show that the existence of chief sustainability officer provides sustainability performance from good corporate governance mechanisms. For regulators, these advise the worldwide policy maker to give the importance to chief sustainability officer roles to improve the engagement of firms in sustainability performance reporting.Originality/valueThis paper extends the existing literature by examining the mediation impact of corporate governance on the relationship between chief sustainability officer and sustainability performance in the European context.