Socially Responsible Investment and Corporate Social and Environmental Reporting in the UK: An Exploratory Study

This exploratory study examines the relations between corporate social and environmental reporting (CSR) and the socially responsible investment (SRI) sector. The evidence presented, based upon the informed opinions of 14 experts within the SRI field, suggests that the field of CSR is on the verge of a major change towards a substantial and sustained improvement in quality and quantity. The SRI sector is undergoing radical changes. A wider social movement has already led to exponential growth, as more people become concerned with how their money is invested. Moreover, the Pensions Review has widened this concern to institutional investment. Representing 35% of the stock market, the potential impact of this regulation is anticipated to be significant. One possible outcome could be a marked increase in the size and power of the SRI sector, improving their ability to successfully influence corporate behaviour. Success is likely to increase further as corporations begin to see a business case, as well as, or as opposed to a moral case, for acting in a more responsible manner. The Turnbull report on the combined codes of corporate governance is a significant factor influencing this. For the first time, reputational risk, and hence how companies manage environmental, ethical and social reputations, is on the core corporate governance agenda. A more powerful outcome would be an increased interest from mainstream fund managers in SRI modes of corporate assessment. Preliminary evidence suggests that this will create a greater demand for CSR, and greater legitimacy of CSR within the accounting orthodoxy.     

社会责任投资:促进投资模式的转变

目前,中国经济发展与天然资源短缺、环境污染的矛盾日益突出。中国的经济增长是以牺牲部分环境质量和环境福利为代价的,片面强调经济增长率的发展模式必将逐渐为兼顾环境和社会均衡发展的、可持续增长的模式所替代。在这一渐进过程中投资必须履行社会责任和注重环境保护的投资理念,必将在金融机构中日渐盛行。     

社会责任投资与公司价值相关性理论探索

社会责任投资的产生和发展与全球社会可持续发展策略密不可分,也是投资从简单追求股东利益最大化向追求满足利益相关者权利转变的实践体现。社会责任投资者通过各种股东行动去影响控股股东或经营管理层的行为,将社会责任投资者的社会价值观灌输、实现到企业行为中去,推动企业在履行社会责任过程中充分考虑利益相关者利益,利益相关者又因此对企业的生存和发展注入专用性投资并分担一定的企业经营风险。同时,企业践行社会责任会降低融资成本和经营风险。长期而言,公司社会责任价值将得到持续提升。     

美国社会责任投资的发展及启示

社会责任投资作为一种通过金融投资活动促进企业履行社会责任的投资方式,正在世界金融市场得到广泛应用与发展。本文以美国为例,首先概括介绍了社会责任投资在美国发展的历程和原因、投资者的动机、投资的方式、投资的业绩,然后从中总结了对我国的启示,以期为社会责任投资在中国大陆地区的健康发展提供可借鉴的经验。     

环境管制、行业属性与企业环保投资

政府环境管制如何影响企业的环保投资行为?企业环保投资行为是否具有行业差异?对上述问题的回答有助于更好地了解企业环保投资活动的特点、明确政府环境管制与行业管制的有效性。基于中国A股上市公司的经验数据,本文研究发现:我国上市公司普遍存在环保投资额不足的现象,环保投资对企业来说是一种"被动"行为;政府环境管制强度与企业环保投资规模之间呈"U"型关系,即环境管制对企业环保投资行为的影响存在"门槛效应",企业环保投资行为更多地体现出"被动"迎合政府环境管制需要的特征;重污染行业企业比非重污染行业企业投入了更大规模的环保资金。本文的研究成果既拓展了企业投资研究的视野,又丰富了环境管理会计方面的学术文献。     

Voluntary Disclosures,Corporate Control,and Investment

We examine the valuation and capital allocation roles of voluntary disclosure when managers have private information regarding the firm’s investment opportunities, but an efficient market for corporate control influences their investment decisions. For managers with long‐term stakes in the firm, the equilibrium disclosure region is two‐tailed: only extreme good news and extreme bad news is disclosed in equilibrium. Moreover, the market’s stock price and investment responses to bad news disclosures are stronger than the responses to good news disclosures, which is consistent with the empirical evidence. We also find that myopic managers are more likely to withhold bad news in good economic times when markets can independently assess expected investment returns.     

Socially Responsible Investing and Climate Change: Contradictions and Challenges

This article explores the contradiction between the articulated investment policies, screening criteria or ethical charters of socially responsible investment funds and their actions demonstrated by their portfolio selection practice. The paper provides a background to socially responsible investment and Australia's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. A discussion of renewable energy options lays the foundation for our main assertion: that this set of possible alternatives provides some new and more environmentally robust options that will better complement the underlying philosophy of funds in the socially responsible investment sector.     

中国情境下社会责任消费行为量表研究

在发达国家,社会责任消费已成为一个热点话题,我国学者也纷纷倡导消费者履行社会责任.为了发现在我国情境下消费者社会责任的维度是否与西方研究有所不同,本文采用Webb2010年开发的社会责任消费行为量表,测量与评价我国消费者社会责任行为的因子结构,并检验其信效度.结果表明,我国消费者的负责任行为可分为六个维度,即支持企业善因营销、支持履行高级社会责任的企业行为、惩罚不负基本责任的企业行为、购买习惯环保、回收再用和生活习惯低碳.     

环境规制、研发投入与先进制造业绿色技术创新

基于2012—2020年先进制造业行业面板数据,运用系统GMM和门槛面板模型考察环境规制对绿色技术创新的影响及其传导机制,同时检验不同研发投入水平下环境规制对绿色技术创新的作用。结果显示：环境规制通过成本遵循和创新补偿两个渠道对先进制造业绿色工艺创新具有正向促进作用,而对绿色产品创新产生负向影响。研发投入在环境规制对先进制造业绿色技术创新的影响中存在双重门槛效应,在较高研发投入水平下,环境规制能够显著促进先进制造业绿色技术创新。     

Current Trends within Social and Environmental Accounting Research: A Literature Review

Given the recent rise in the evolution and maturity of social and environmental accounting (SEA) research and scholarship, we provide a literature review of the current trends within this area in a concise and harmonized manner for a wider audience in academia and practice. More specifically, we visit the current state of scholarly work, which can be useful in facilitating future research questions and further development of SEA research associated with relations between corporate social performance (CSP), corporate social disclosure (CSD), and corporate financial performance (CFP). Our goal is to offer insights to the current state of SEA research that is informative to both novice and expert SEA scholars, with the hope to promote and stimulate further advancement of research in this particular area. Drawing knowledge from relevant disciplines such as accounting, management, finance, and economics, this article visits the current trends within SEA research in terms of definition, research topics, theoretical viewpoints, methodological approaches, as well as suggestions for future research.     

金融业社会分工与金融企业组织形式的变化

本文就金融业社会分工与金融企业组织形式变化之间的关系进行了讨论。     

环境规制、绿色金融与环保企业投资

本文以2010—2017年80家上市环保企业为样本,使用系统GMM模型和面板门槛模型考察环境规制和绿色金融发展对环保企业投资的影响,研究发现:环保企业投资项目的长期性使其需要绿色金融的资金支持,环境规制促进专门从事防污治污的环保企业成立,环境规制在绿色金融对环保企业投资的支持中主要起到规范和促进作用;环境规制水平越低,工业企业的污染排放和环境破坏程度越严重,政府和金融部门在事后治理中对环保产业的投入越多,环保企业投资越大。     

市场投资视角下绿色信贷对社会资产增长和环境保护作用的研究~

本文从市场投资角度,分析了绿色投入与非绿色投入、社会资产增长与环境治理之间的相互作用机制,并提出了一个较完整的理论框架。该框架分析了与社会资产总量增长率以及环境污染下降率相关的要素,并利用线性规划方法分析了在环境污染速度下降到一定程度的情况下,社会资产总量增长最快速度所取决的相关要素。研究表明,在环境污染下降速度一定的情况下,最快的社会资产增长率取决于投向投资回报率最高的投入与治理环境污染投入的比例,并非完全取决于绿色信贷投入的比例。最后,本文对绿色信贷政策的实施提出了具有针对性和可操作性的建议。     

Mandatory Environmental Disclosures by Companies Complying with IASs/IFRSs: The Cases of France,Germany, and the UK

This study investigates whether the adoption of a single set of accounting standards, such as IASs/IFRSs, guarantees the harmonization of accounting practices within a country and across countries, or whether differences in reporting practices persist because of dissimilarities in reporting habits and institutional settings. To this end, we investigate whether the level of environmental disclosure under IFRSs is related to the size of the reporting firm, and the strength of legal and regulatory constraints on environmental disclosures in the country where the firm is domiciled. Results indicate (1) that environmental disclosures imposed by IFRSs increase with firm size, and (2) that firms domiciled in countries with constraining environmental disclosure regulations (i.e., France and the UK) report more on environmental issues than firms domiciled in countries with weakly constraining regulations (i.e., Germany). This suggests a strong impact of national regulations on IFRS reporting. Taken as a whole, our results support the view that IFRSs are not applied consistently across firms and across countries, notably because of persistence of reporting traditions and discrepancies in national legal requirements.     

The Impact of Mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards Adoption on Investment Efficiency: Standards,Enforcement, and Reporting Incentives

This paper investigates whether mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is followed by a decline in firms’ suboptimal investments. On average, we find that the probability of under‐investment in capital expenditure declines for firms from 23 countries requiring mandatory adoption of IFRS relative to firms from countries that do not have such requirements; meanwhile the probability of over‐investment remains unchanged. However, this real effect becomes smaller when we control for concurrent changes to the enforcement of financial reporting along with the introduction of IFRS in some countries, suggesting that the switch in standards is only one of the drivers for the observed benefits. Moreover, we find that the reduction in suboptimal investments is driven by firms with high reporting incentives to provide transparent financial reports from countries where the existing legal and enforcement systems are strong. We further show that the real effect increases with the predicted changes in accounting comparability. Finally, we find that after mandatory IFRS adoption, capital investment becomes more value‐relevant, less sensitive to the availability of free cash flows, and more responsive to growth opportunities. Our findings provide new insights into the real effects of mandatory IFRS adoption.     

Disclosures of Social Value Creation and Managing Legitimacy: A Case Study of Three Global Social Enterprises

This study seeks to fill the gap in the existing literature by examining how and whether disclosure of social value creation becomes a part of the legitimation strategies of social enterprises. In particular, using Suchman's (1995) moral dimension of legitimacy theory, this study sets out whether and how disclosures by three global social organisations – Grameen Bank, Charity Water and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – conform to the expectations of the broader community. The study finds that there is an apparent disconnection between disclosure and action by social enterprises. With reference to a few incidents, social enterprises use disclosure as a part of their managerial efforts, rather than to create moral legitimacy. The notion of apparent disconnection between disclosure and real action by social enterprises is evident. The notion is consistent with extant disclosure literature capturing the motivations for the disclosure practices of corporations. The findings of this paper suggest that when an organisation (whether it is a corporation or a social enterprise) faces a legitimacy crisis, it appears to disclose good news rather than bad news, which calls into question organisational moral legitimacy.     

Environmental Product Standards, International Trade and Monopolistic Competition

Thispaper examines the performance of non-cooperative environmentalpolicy in the case of local consumption externalities. In a two-countrymodel with monopolistic competiton, governments simultaneouslyimpose environmental product standards. Stricter regulationsforce the industrial sector to shift resources from non-environmentalto environmental R&D. Since the R&Dallocation in each country depends on the domestic as well asforeign policy, local decisions affect the economic and ecologicalsystem in the other region. Despite the arising spillovers, thepayoff dominant equilibria of the countries' game are efficient.This result requires similar but not identical preferences andtechnologies in both countries. It holds even if the regionsdiffer in market size. Under certain conditions, the non-cooperativesolutions remain efficient in the case of global pollution.     

机构投资者异质性、环境规制与企业环保投资

在建设美丽中国的背景下,机构投资者作为资本市场的重要力量,逐渐重视企业的绿色发展。本文研究了机构投资者异质性对企业环保投资的具体效应及影响机制。研究发现:机构投资者整体持股能够促进企业环保投资,具体而言,压力抵制型机构投资者持股能够显著促进企业环保投资,而压力敏感型机构投资者持股比例对环保投资的影响不显著。进一步分析发现:环境规制会促进压力抵制型机构投资者增加环保投资。本文不仅有利于丰富现有关于机构投资者和环保投资的文献,还对拓展机构投资者队伍、制定环境规制政策以助推绿色发展具有重要的参考价值。     

规范投资性房地产评估 服务新会计准则

中国资产评估协会发布的《投资性房地产评估指导意见（试行）》（以下简称《指导意见》）,对以财务报告为目的的投资性房地产公允价值评估进行规范。这是继《以财务报告为目的的评估指南（试行）》（以下简称《评估指南》）于2007年11月发布之后．