Corporate waste management and investment efficiency: Does the CSR committee matter? Evidence from France

This study investigates the relationship between waste management outcomes and corporate investment efficiency, as well as the moderating role of CSR committees, using a panel of 267 non-financial French listed firms over the period 2011–2022. Based on agency theory and the resource-based view, we explore how process-level environmental practices, particularly waste management, are associated with investment efficiency. The results show that a lower waste burden is associated with higher investment efficiency. We also find that the presence of a CSR committee is associated with a weaker negative relationship between waste burden and investment efficiency, consistent with stronger sustainability oversight and better integration of environmental objectives into corporate decision processes. Additional analyses indicate that this negative relationship is weaker in firms with higher ESG performance and stronger in firms with CEO duality. From a strategic management perspective, the findings suggest that operational environmental capabilities may function as strategic assets associated with higher-quality resource allocation. This highlights the importance of considering environmental practices and governance structures jointly when assessing differences in corporate investment efficiency.