Does Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Create Shareholder Value? Evidence from the Indian Companies Act 2013

In 2013, a new law required Indian firms, which satisfy certain profitability, net worth, and size thresholds, to spend at least 2% of their net income on corporate social responsibility (CSR). We exploit this regulatory change to isolate the shareholder value implications of CSR activities. Using an event study approach coupled with a regression discontinuity design, we find that the law, on average, caused a 4.1% drop in the stock price of firms forced to spend money on CSR. However, firms that spend more on advertising are not negatively affected by the mandatory CSR rule. These results suggest that firms voluntarily choose CSR to maximize shareholder value. Therefore, forcing a firm to spend on CSR is likely to be sub‐optimal for the firm with a consequent negative impact on shareholder value.     

Corporate social responsibility and financial fraud: evidence from China

This paper investigates the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on corporate financial fraud in China. We find that CSR scores are negatively associated with fraudulent financial activities, suggesting that CSR firms are less likely to engage in financial fraud. The results also indicate that the negative relation is more significant for CSR performance than CSR disclosure. Additionally, we demonstrate that the negative effect of CSR is more pronounced for firms with voluntary CSR practices, continuous CSR engagements, financial pressure and internal control weaknesses. Overall, we find that CSR is an ethical behaviour that reduces financial misconduct.     

The effect of mandatory CSR disclosure on firm profitability and social externalities: Evidence from China

We examine how mandatory disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) impacts firm performance and social externalities. Our analysis exploits China's 2008 mandate requiring firms to disclose CSR activities, using a difference-in-differences design. Although the mandate does not require firms to spend on CSR, we find that mandatory CSR reporting firms experience a decrease in profitability subsequent to the mandate. In addition, the cities most impacted by the disclosure mandate experience a decrease in their industrial wastewater and SO₂ emission levels. These findings suggest that mandatory CSR disclosure alters firm behavior and generates positive externalities at the expense of shareholders.     

Mandatory corporate social responsibility disclosure and dividend payouts: evidence from a quasi‐natural experiment

Employing the enactment of a regulation that mandates a subset of firms to disclose their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities as a quasi‐natural experiment, we find that mandatory CSR disclosure reduces firms’ dividend payouts significantly. Further analyses indicate that the negative relation is more pronounced for firms with weaker corporate governance mechanisms, where shareholders lack of effective tools to protect themselves against pressures from stakeholders, and a shift of relative power towards stakeholders is more likely to occur. Our paper provides a specific channel through which mandatory CSR disclosure benefits stakeholders at the expense of shareholders.     

企业社会责任:“真心”抑或“幌子”?——基于高管内幕交易视角的研究

企业承担社会责任究竟是“真心”还是“幌子”?与现有研究聚焦于考察社会责任对企业行为的影响不同,本文基于高管个体行为视角,实证检验企业社会责任对高管个体证券交易行为的影响。基于2008～2014年中国沪深A股上市公司高管10338个内幕交易样本的实证结果显示:(1)企业承担社会责任不仅能抑制高管内幕交易的规模,更能显著降低高管内幕交易获利性,这表明作为社会责任的谋划者,企业高管并未以社会责任为“幌子”牟取个人证券交易的私利,在一定程度上提供了企业“真心”承担社会责任的证据;(2)进一步从“信息模型”和“声誉模型”双重视角探究发现,在企业信息不透明和高管个人声誉较差的情况下,企业社会责任对高管内幕交易获利性的抑制作用更为显著;并且相较于高管个人声誉较差的情况,企业社会责任在信息不透明的情况下对高管内幕交易获利性的抑制作用更强。总之,本研究从高管个体行为视角提供了企业社会责任具有积极治理作用的证据,不仅丰富了企业承担社会责任经济后果的研究,同时,对利益相关者也具有实践指导意义。     

企业社会责任:“真心”抑或“幌子”?——基于高管内幕交易视角的研究

企业承担社会责任究竟是“真心”还是“幌子”?与现有研究聚焦于考察社会责任对企业行为的影响不同,本文基于高管个体行为视角,实证检验企业社会责任对高管个体证券交易行为的影响。基于2008～2014年中国沪深A股上市公司高管10338个内幕交易样本的实证结果显示:(1)企业承担社会责任不仅能抑制高管内幕交易的规模,更能显著降低高管内幕交易获利性,这表明作为社会责任的谋划者,企业高管并未以社会责任为“幌子”牟取个人证券交易的私利,在一定程度上提供了企业“真心”承担社会责任的证据;(2)进一步从“信息模型”和“声誉模型”双重视角探究发现,在企业信息不透明和高管个人声誉较差的情况下,企业社会责任对高管内幕交易获利性的抑制作用更为显著;并且相较于高管个人声誉较差的情况,企业社会责任在信息不透明的情况下对高管内幕交易获利性的抑制作用更强。总之,本研究从高管个体行为视角提供了企业社会责任具有积极治理作用的证据,不仅丰富了企业承担社会责任经济后果的研究,同时,对利益相关者也具有实践指导意义。     

Mandatory CSR expenditure and firm performance

India has recently mandated corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure under section 135 of the Indian Companies Act 2013 – the first national jurisdiction to do so. In line with the “shareholder value maximization” concept, we document the positive impacts of CSR expenditure on firm performance measured by return on asset and cash flow from operations. Additionally, we find that, despite the regulatory requirement, mandated CSR legislation is a significant but not the sole determinant of actual CSR spending by firms; rather, firm-specific economic factors such as size, level of cash balance and cash flow from operations have a moderating effect. We also observe that CSR expenditure contributes to firm performance irrespective of the level of actual CSR expenditure relative to the level of mandatory CSR expenditure. Our findings potentially reconcile conflicting results presented in the literature and provide valuable information for governments and regulatory authorities that are considering the mandatory implementation of CSR expenditure.     

公司社会责任履行对财务业绩的影响--基于发布企业社会责任报告下的研究

文章以2011～2012年披露企业社会责任报告的486家上市公司为样本,运用OLS回归方法,实证检验上市公司在发布企业社会责任报告的情况下,公司社会责任对财务业绩的影响。研究结果表明：上市公司多次发布企业社会责任报告能够促进公司财务业绩;公司履行社会责任能够直接促进公司财务业绩的提高;上市公司履行社会责任可以通过发布企业社会责任报告提高公司财务业绩。     

The use of management control systems to manage CSR strategy: A levers of control perspective

Little is known about the role of management control systems (MCS) in managing the strategic processes that underpin Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). To enhance our understanding of this phenomenon, this study employs Simons’ (1995) levers of control framework to explore how organizations leverage MCS in different ways in order to drive strategic renewal and trigger organizational change while simultaneously supporting society's broader sustainability agenda. Drawing on data gathered from France's largest listed companies – members of the CAC 40 – we provide insights into the structures and processes that companies employ to design, implement and monitor their CSR strategy. In doing so, we provide evidence of the way that organizations seek to attain their CSR objectives, and of the relationship between the management of CSR and other business processes. Of particular interest is the role of the levers of control in enabling managers to identify and manage threats and opportunities associated with CSR strategy, thus forming risk management processes that support organizations in their attainment of strategic objectives. Furthermore, the study provides evidence suggesting the use of MCS has the potential to contribute to society's broader sustainability agenda through processes that enable innovation, communication, reporting, and the identification of threats and opportunities.     

Mind the Gap: Is Water Disclosure a Missing Component of Corporate Social Responsibility?

Corporate water stewardship is conventionally internally focused, but now it is becoming a critical issue in a wider socio-political context. Drawing on the theory of self-regulation, we investigate the rationale behind, and the factors contributing to, corporate decisions to voluntarily disclose water information via the CDP. The study uses innovative proxies for corporate self-regulation, including water governance, water policy, water actions, and water performance. Our results show that these proxies are significantly related to the propensity of the companies participating in the CDP to disclose water information. Furthermore, belonging to a water-intensive industry may moderate the impact of self-regulation on water transparency. Finally, sharing water information privately with key institutional investors is a strategic tool for implementing self-regulation. The study suggests that corporate self-regulation can play a powerful role in reducing corporate water opaqueness when mandatory water legislation is absent or not yet applicable.     

Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: the “virtuous circle” revisited

We examine the causal relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance. Consistent with past studies, we find that the two variables appear to be related when we use traditional statistical techniques. However, using a time series fixed effects approach, we find that the relation between CSR and financial performance is much weaker than previously thought. We also find little evidence of causality between financial performance and narrower measures of social performance that focus on stakeholder management. Our results suggest that strong stock market performance leads to greater firm investment in aspects of CSR devoted to employee relations, but that CSR activities do not affect financial performance. We conclude that CSR is driven more by unobservable firm characteristics than by financial performance.

How does mandatory CSR reporting affect supply chain? A new perspective from suppliers

Exploiting a quasi-natural experiment which mandates a subset of Chinese listed firms to report corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, this paper examines how mandatory CSR disclosure affects suppliers' willingness to extend trade credit. We document that mandatory CSR disclosure firms suffer a significant shrinking in the volume of trade credit, which is driven by the supply side instead of the demand side. Further mechanism analyses reveal that both financial condition deterioration and interest conflicts contribute to adverse policy effects. These two factors negatively impact the credit quality of mandatory firms and then weaken credit quality after the mandate subsequently undermines suppliers' willingness to lend. Additionally, the negative association between mandatory CSR disclosure and trade credit is mainly concentrated on highly policy-exposed corporates, that is, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and high-polluting firms. Our work innovatively evaluates CSR effects from the perspective of suppliers, which provides a new insight into CSR management along the supply chain for academics and practitioners.     

Capital market liberalisation and voluntary corporate social responsibility disclosure: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

This paper investigates the impact of the Shanghai–Hong Kong Stock Connect (SHSC) scheme on voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in China. Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) design, we find that companies that participate in the SHSC scheme are more inclined to voluntarily issue CSR reports. This effect is more pronounced for companies that have limited access to international markets and those with weak corporate governance. Additional analyses show that SHSC-connected firms also produce higher quality CSR reports and achieve a better CSR performance. Our findings imply that capital market liberalisation promotes voluntary corporate disclosure for investors.     

Are red or blue companies more likely to go green? Politics and corporate social responsibility

Using the firm-level corporate social responsibility (CSR) ratings of Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini, we find that firms score higher on CSR when they have Democratic rather than Republican founders, CEOs, and directors, and when they are headquartered in Democratic rather than Republican-leaning states. Democratic-leaning firms spend $20 million more on CSR than Republican-leaning firms ($80 million more within the sample of S&P 500 firms), or roughly 10% of net income. We find no evidence that firms recover these expenditures through increased sales. Indeed, increases in firm CSR ratings are associated with negative future stock returns and declines in firm ROA, suggesting that any benefits to stakeholders from social responsibility come at the direct expense of firm value.     

企业社会责任、融资约束与企业金融化

企业承担社会责任能够通过与利益相关者进行资源交换获得战略资源,但是战略资源对企业绩效的影响取决于企业的投资方向。在实体企业金融化愈演愈烈的经济环境下,本文利用2010—2017年中国A股非金融上市公司数据重点探讨了企业社会责任对企业金融化的影响及其作用机制。研究结果表明:(1)企业社会责任提高了企业的金融资产配置水平,存在“金融化效应”;(2)融资约束在企业社会责任对企业金融化的影响中具有部分中介作用,企业社会责任通过缓解融资约束加剧了企业金融化;(3)企业社会责任的“金融化效应”仅在外部监管力度较弱的非国有企业、内部治理水平较低的低股权集中度企业中存在,行政外部监督和企业内部监督能够在“融资约束—企业金融化”过程中对管理层的机会主义行为发挥治理作用;(4)识别机制检验证实了中国企业金融化主要出于利润最大化的“投资替代”动机。以上结论为政策制定者规范企业社会责任报告披露方式、引导金融回归实体经济具有借鉴意义。     

Corporate social responsibility reporting in financial institutions: Evidence from Euronext

The legitimacy, the identity and the social impact of financial institutions go beyond the generation of revenues for providers of capital, through financial intermediation. Financial institutions bear significant corporate social responsibility (CSR). We produce measures of CSR disclosure and explore the determinants of CSR disclosure practices in a cross section of financial institutions. Working with financial companies whose stocks are listed in the Euronext stock exchange, we find that the extent of disclosure of CSR practices is greater in large companies and also in companies of greater financial leverage. Therefore, increased corporate visibility and financial risk increase stakeholder demand for transparency on the social impact of financial institutions and their CSR practices.     

会计稳健性、公司治理与社会责任报告印象管理

以2009-2014年披露社会责任报告的A股上市公司为样本,研究会计稳健性与公司治理对企业社会责任报告印象管理的交互影响.结果表明:企业会计稳健性越高,社会责任报告印象管理程度越低;公司治理水平越高,社会责任报告印象管理程度越低;公司治理水平越高,会计稳健性对社会责任报告印象管理的抑制作用越小;反之,公司治理水平越低,会计稳健性对社会责任报告印象管理的抑制作用越大.会计稳健性和公司治理均有助于抑制企业社会责任报告印象管理行为,且具有替代关系,这种替代关系在非国有企业中更为显著.     

The Value Relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility Expenditure: Evidence from Regulatory Decisions

We examine the value relevance of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure of Bangladeshi banks from 2007–2014 in response to a regulatory directive on banking firms’ engagement in CSR activities. We find a positive association between CSR expenditure and a firm's market value. Evidence of an inverse U-shaped curvilinear association between CSR expenditure and market value suggests that the impact of CSR expenditure on a firm's market value has a certain limit. We also document that unexpected or abnormal components of CSR expenditure comprise value-relevant information. Our study provides empirical evidence to support the value relevance of CSR expenditure as an explanation for why firms should invest in CSR and why they should inform various stakeholders about their CSR activities.     

State-owned capital and corporate social responsibility of private-holding companies: evidence from China

The undertaking of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a topic of widespread concern in society. Utilising a sample of 9872 private-holding companies listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen securities markets from 2009 to 2019, this study examines the impact of state-owned capital on CSR activities. We find that CSR is enhanced when the proportion of state-owned capital in a private-holding listed company exceeds 5 percent. The appointment of directors, supervisors, and senior management by state-owned shareholders, and the participation of state-owned investment in company operation further promote the fulfilment of CSR in private-holding listed companies. This research not only enriches the literature on the economic consequences of state-owned equity holdings in private companies, but also provides empirical evidence regarding the outcomes of improvement of corporate governance mechanisms.     

Shareholder election of CSR committee members and its effects on CSR performance

We examine the election of directors to corporate social responsibility (CSR) committees and whether shareholder votes influence CSR committee effectiveness. Our study is motivated by the importance that shareholders place on CSR and the responsibilities of the board in overseeing a firm's CSR practices. We find that CSR committee members receive greater shareholder support than other directors. We further find that among CSR committee members, those who are more experienced and skilled receive greater shareholder support. Furthermore, when a firm's CSR performance is poorer (better), CSR committee members receive lower (greater) shareholder support compared with other directors. Finally, we find that through voting, shareholders can increase the efficacy of the CSR committee, leading to improvements in CSR committee structure and performance. Overall, our results suggest that shareholders value the services and expertise of CSR committee members and hold them accountable for CSR performance. Shareholder votes are also effective in enhancing CSR performance.