Determinants of LGBTQ+ Corporate Policies

Abstract

We study the determinants of firms’ LGBTQ+ policies and their relation to general CSR policies. Common factors explain LGBTQ+ policies related to firms’ primary stakeholders and those aimed at public LGBTQ+ efforts: younger firms, those with more financial resources, more educated workforces, catering to retail customers, and located in liberal areas have more LGBTQ+-friendly policies. LGBTQ+ initiatives encounter less societal agreement than CSR initiatives. Illustrating the distinctiveness of LGBTQ+ issues in the CSR space, we find that firms’ LGBTQ+ friendliness only weakly correlates with overall CSR performance. Lastly, we show that firms’ LGBTQ+ policies respond to pressure from shareholder proposals.