我国上市公司社会责任报告的统计分析

长期以来,我国社会责任信息披披露散见于上市公司年报与大众媒体中,未见独立的上市公司社会责任报告。受此条件限制,国内对上市公司社会责任信息披露的研究样本一般来源于上市公司年报,少数单独研究社会责任报告的文章则样本容量太少,上述研究不可避免存在一些局限。2006年,宝钢公司发布我国第一份上市公司可持续发展报告报告,2006年3月国家电网发布我国第一份公司社会责任报告,此后有将近二十几家公司发布了独立的社会责任报告。进入2007、2008年,越来越多的上市公司开始发布独立的社会责任报告。这一趋势为我国社会责任信息披露提供了新的研究样本和视角。本文试图分析我国社会责任报告披露的制度背景,以2005-2007年我国上市公司社会责任报告作为研究样本,对社会责任报告披露的行业、时间、驱动因素、形式、结构、内容、质量等方面进行统计分析,总结我国社会责任报告披露的相关规律,最后提出相关政策建议。     

企业员工责任信息披露研究

随着我国建设和谐社会的深入，社会各界和企业内部对企业员工责任信息的需求也与日俱增。企业披露员工责任信息的质量问题渐渐引起会计学界的关注，这也是会计研究的一个新领域。本文采用内容分析和四值打分的方法对深市上市公司年报中披露的企业员工责任信息的质量进行整体评价，找出导致员工责任信息质量低下的原因，尝试给出一个建立企业员工责任信息披露体系的建议，以提高相关信息的质量。     

公司社会责任信息披露与经济动机研究——来自中国上市公司社会责任报告的经验证据

以往对中国上市公司社会责任信息披露的研究均以年报为样本,本文首次以中国A股上市公司2008~2010年1226份社会责任报告为样本,研究发现,上市公司确实存在通过提高社会责任信息披露水平来获得消费者认同和创造产品竞争优势,以达到提升公司价值的经济动机。消费者口碑敏感型行业上市公司社会责任信息披露水平比其他公司平均高出11.6%。但是,本文并没有发现上市公司再融资动机影响社会责任信息披露水平的经验证据。本文研究结论为监管部门基于公司经济动机视角完善相关法规、提高上市公司社会责任信息披露水平提供了经验证据。     

社会责任信息披露影响因素研究——基于中小板上市公司

本文以深圳证券交易所上市的中小板公司2010年发布的年报为对象搜集数据,构建社会责任信息披露指数以衡量中小板上市公司社会责任信息披露水平,利用多元分析探寻中小板上市公司社会责任信息披露的影响因素。研究发现,中小板上市公司社会责任信息披露的总体水平不高,行业属性、公司规模以及表示收益状况的变量对社会责任信息披露有显著的影响,而公司治理结构变量对社会责任信息披露的影响不显著。     

社会责任信息披露、会计稳健性与融资约束——基于产权异质性的视角

目前关于社会责任信息披露与融资约束之间关系的研究还较少,且未有研究将社会责任信息披露与会计稳健性联系起来,考察二者对融资约束影响的交互效应,这不利于在实务上为企业的决策提供理论指引。本文以我国A股上市公司为样本,区分民营企业和国有企业考察了社会责任信息披露、会计稳健性及融资约束之间的关系,研究发现:(1)社会责任信息披露有助于缓解融资约束,且这种影响主要体现在民营企业中,在国有企业中并不显著;(2)由于资源约束的限制,企业社会责任信息披露与会计稳健性在对融资约束的影响上主要呈现出替代关系;(3)社会责任信息披露对融资约束的影响及其与会计稳健性之间的替代效应主要存在于经济发达地区,在经济发展水平较低的地区并不显著。     

浅析企业社会责任会计信息披露的问题与对策

社会责任会计是近年来备受关注的会计学新领域,它要求企业在实现经济利益的同时也要兼顾承担社会责任实现社会效益,社会责任会计信息披露问题是社会责任会计研究的重要内容,企业社会责任会计信息的披露质量直接影响着信息需求者的决策,因此,提升企业社会责任会计信息的披露质量至关重要。本文通过分析企业在社会责任会计信息披露过程中存在的问题,进而提出完善我国企业社会责任会计信息披露的建议。     

我国上市公司社会责任会计信息市场反应实证分析

本文抽样分析了我国上市公司社会责任会计信息披露的现状,同时通过建立上市公司对利益相关者承担的社会责任贡献的指标体系,揭示了我国深市、沪市所有上市公司的真实社会贡献,并实证分析了市场对这一信息的反应。实证结果表明:现阶段这一信息与我国上市公司价值的相关性不强,但是,由于行业特色的存在,不同行业之间的价值相关性迥异。这一实证结果给我国社会责任会计的发展带来了一些有意义的启示。     

公司特征与公司社会责任信息披露——来自我国上市公司的经验证据

本文在自愿性信息披露的研究框架下,结合公司社会责任理论,对我国上市公司的公司特征与公司社会责任信息披露之间关系进行了实证分析。文章选取了1999年到2004年在上海和深圳证券交易所上市交易的石化塑胶行业的A股公司作为研究样本,通过对年报进行内容分析,构建了公司社会责任信息披露指数。实证检验发现:(1)规模越大、盈利能力越好的公司越倾向于披露公司社会责任信息;(2)公司财务杠杆和再融资需求不影响公司社会责任信息披露;(3)包括上市地点和披露期间在内的披露环境对公司社会责任信息披露有显著影响。文章还对公司社会责任信息的提供者、使用者和监管者提出了建议。     

上市公司社会责任信息披露制度之审思与重构

2020年新出台的《证券法》将信息披露制度置于核心地位,但上市公司的社会责任信息披露制度仍有待完善.由于我国的传统信息披露制度只强调了上市公司的财务信息,尚未对社会责任信息给予充分关注,导致社会责任信息披露制度在宏观强制性效力和微观披露指标上均没有统一标准,加之程序性规则缺失,使上市公司所披露的社会责任信息难以回应投资者日益增长的信息需求.因此,亟需借鉴欧盟和我国香港地区的制度经验,通过统一强制性的制度规范、设定具体而明确的披露指标以及补足程序性规则等途径,重构上市公司的社会责任信息披露制度,提升社会责任信息质量以保障投资者权益.     

我国上市公司社会责任信息披露制度实证研究

我国上市公司社会责任信息披露制度在推动上市公司披露社会责任信息方面发挥了积极的作用,但是在规则体系、制度内容、监管体制与机制等方面还存在着一定的问题,有待于改进和完善.当前,应将上市公司社会责任信息披露纳入法律规制的范围,健全上市公司社会责任信息披露制度的内容,加强上市公司社会责任信息披露的监管.     

企业社会责任报告鉴证意见是否具有信息含量——来自我国上市公司的经验证据

近年来,我国上市公司披露企业社会责任报告的现象越来越多,企业保证社会责任报告质量的方式有两种:一是独立第三方出具的企业社会责任报告鉴证意见;二是企业董事会对企业社会责任报告质量出具的自我承诺。这两种保证形式是否具有信息含量是大家所关心的问题。本文以沪深两市2009—2010年披露企业社会责任报告的940家上市公司为研究对象,依据信号传递理论,运用事件研究法研究发现:企业社会责任报告鉴证意见具有正向的市场反应,而董事会承诺不具有市场反应。根据我国的制度背景、理论分析和实证结果,从如何完善我国的企业社会责任报告鉴证标准、鉴证主体、鉴证客体、政府部门对董事会承诺的监管重点等方面提出了政策建议。     

NARRATIVE CORPORATE SOCIAL DISCLOSURES: HOW MUCH OF A DIFFERENCE DO THEY MAKE TO INVESTMENT DECISION-MAKING?

This paper reports the results of a study on the usefulness of typical social disclosures from corporate annual reports for investment decision-making. Rather than seek to solely survey respondents about their stated behaviour, the present study also seeks to examine if narrative social disclosures in the annual report actually impact on the behaviour of how investors allocate their investment funds. The experiment provides a basis for assessing the magnitude of any decision impacts. The results indicate that from a sample of sophisticated users (accountants and investment analysts) social disclosures from annual reports do not elicit any more than a 15% switch in investment funds. Furthermore, the switch in funds is not always in favour of the company providing the information. Consistent with these behavioural reactions the survey evidence also reveals moderate attitudes to the decision usefulness of narrative social disclosures for investment decision making.     

Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility Reporting Practices from an Emerging Mobile Telecommunications Market

This study examines corporate social responsibility reporting practices in the rapidly growing mobile telecommunications industry in Bangladesh. This industry sector is one of the fastest growing in the world making it an attractive global investment. Using content analysis we reviewed and analysed the annual reports of four major mobile companies between 2008 and 2011. The findings reveal that mobile telecommunications companies in Bangladesh disclose social and environmental responsibility information across a range of categories. We find that these mobile companies provide significant benefits to education and health in Bangladesh and that their focus on community and development disclosures are motivated in part by seeking to maintain legitimacy in an extremely competitive industry.     

Corporate social responsibility orientation and textual features of financial disclosures

This paper examines the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientation and textual attributes of financial disclosures. Using a large U.S. sample from 1999 to 2017, we find that firms with high CSR orientation provide more readable disclosures and use a less ambiguous tone in their annual reports. These findings are consistent with the notion that managers in CSR-conscious firms adhere to high ethical standards and commit to improving the transparency of their firms' financial disclosures. Our results are robust to alternative measures of readability and CSR performance, potential endogeneity, and sampling methods. Moreover, in a cross-sectional analysis, we show that the impact of CSR on corporate readability/tone ambiguity is more pronounced for firms with weak corporate governance. Overall, the results suggest that CSR serves as a substitute for traditional corporate governance mechanisms to ensure transparent disclosure.     

Global warming, commitment to the Kyoto protocol, and accounting disclosures by the largest global public firms from polluting industries

This study evaluates disclosures on pollution and greenhouse gases by firms domiciled in countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol compared to others. The study is based on disclosures made in the annual reports, environmental reports, and websites of 120 of the largest (in terms of revenues) public firms from the chemical, oil and gas, energy, and motor vehicles and casualty insurance industries. The study uses content analysis to construct weighted and unweighted disclosure indices.The results show that firms from countries that ratified the Protocol have higher disclosure indexes as compared to firms in other countries. Additionally, larger firms disclose more detailed pollution information. Multinational firms that operate in countries that ratified the Protocol but have their home offices in countries that did not are associated with lower disclosures. This lack of consistency in disclosure is not likely to be helpful in informing shareholders about the social responsibility of their investments.     

Human Rights Performance Disclosure by Companies with Operations in High Risk Countries: Evidence from the Australian Minerals Sector

The aim of this study is to explore whether Australian mineral companies operating in high human rights risk countries provide more human rights disclosures than companies operating in low risk countries. A content analysis instrument containing 88 specific human rights performance items derived from a number of international human rights guidelines has been developed to investigate the annual reports, social responsibility reports and corporate websites of the top 50 Australian mineral companies (2010/2011). The findings show that human rights performance disclosures by companies with operations in high human rights risk countries are significantly higher than companies with operations in low risk countries. By disclosing extended human rights performance information, companies operating in high risk countries appear to ease community concerns about human rights violations. The finding is consistent with legitimacy theory, which posits that organisations respond to community concerns in relation to particular social issues.     

Disclosure responses to mining accidents: South African evidence

Mining activities generate significant social concerns in terms of employee safety and stakeholder scrutiny has increased considerably in recent years. Social and environmental accounting research is largely dedicated to environmental issues and the study of other components of social accounting is limited. This study examines safety disclosures in the annual reports, sustainability reports, and reactive corporate press releases of South African mining organisations following two major mining accidents occurring at Harmony Gold and Gold Fields’ mines. Results show that organisations react to perceived legitimacy threats through increased safety disclosures. The entire mining industry evidences an increase in disclosure levels after the incidents, suggesting that organisations do respond to increased stakeholder scrutiny threatening their legitimacy. Furthermore, our results provide evidence of an association between safety disclosure levels and firm size, social performance, risk, and number of fatalities, while the media attention devoted to mining accidents appears to be unrelated to safety disclosure levels. It is possible that stakeholder pressure, which motivates corporate social disclosures according to legitimacy and stakeholder theories, consists of various factors, which combined form the motivation to report. Media attention, therefore, cannot be considered in isolation as a driver of disclosure. Rather, a combination of variables such as size, social responsibility performance, number of fatalities, risk, and media attention could serve as a proxy for social pressure.     

年报风险信息披露与银行贷款利率

既有文献较少从银行视角关注年报风险信息披露的经济后果。银行更有能力解读年度风险信息,银行利益也更直接受到年报风险信息的影响,银行贷款利率更能体现年报风险信息披露的经济后果。本文基于2008-2017年单笔银行贷款利率数据的研究发现:总体上我国年报风险信息披露降低了银行贷款利率,说明我国年报风险信息披露更符合趋同观假说。中介效应检验发现:我国年报风险信息披露通过提高信息透明度,降低银行风险感知水平进而降低了银行贷款利率,即信息质量和风险是我国年报风险信息披露影响银行贷款利率的不完全中介。进一步分析发现:我国年报风险信息披露与银行贷款利率的负相关关系主要体现在货币政策紧缩组、非国有企业组以及公司治理水平较高组。本文首次研究银行贷款利率与年报风险信息披露的关系,有助于丰富风险信息披露文献和银行贷款文献。     

Voluntary disclosures and information production by analysts

We analyze the voluntary disclosure decision of a manager when analysts scrutinize the quality of disclosure. We derive an equilibrium in which managers voluntarily disclose unfavorable information only if sufficiently precise, but disclose favorable news with lower levels of accuracy. We show that analysts cover good news disclosures with higher scrutiny. To the extent analysts rely on mandatory financial reports to interpret voluntary disclosures, we show that more precise financial reports may lead to more precise but less frequent voluntary disclosures. Moreover, a slant toward conservatism in financial reports can lead to less precise yet more frequent voluntary disclosures.     

Understanding risk disclosures as a function of social organisation: A neo-Durkheimian institutional theory-based study of Burmah Oil Company 1971–1976

This paper draws on neo-Durkheimian institutional theory to identify patterns of social relations within the Burmah Oil Company Limited (BOC) in the period 1971–1976 and to assess whether the risk perceptions and the approaches to risk management discussed within the risk disclosures for the BOC annual reports are consistent with the patterns of social relations. Using archival sources the dominant pattern of social relations in the period 1971–1973 is identified as hierarchical and in the period 1974–1976 as isolate; the change in the pattern of social relations resulting from the BOC tanker fleet crisis in 1974. Significantly, the annual report risk disclosures are found to be consistent with the dominant patterns of social relations. Much prior risk disclosure research has focused on examining the principal characteristics of risk disclosures and testing for associations between volumes of risk disclosures and firm characteristics. This study suggests neo-Durkheimian institutional theory may offer a causally-based explanation for annual report risk disclosures.