国外公司社会责任报告主要模式述评

面对全球公司社会责任报告日益增多但又缺乏统一标准的情况，一些国际非政府组织开始着手建立统一的社会责任报告标准，形成了三种主要的报告模式：“全球报告行动”的G3报告框架、“国际社会责任”的SAS000标准，以及“社会和伦理责任协会”的AA1000系列。这三种模式在推动社会责任报告的共同目标下，既相互独立、各有侧重又相互联系、互为补充，同时也为认识我国公司社会责任报告的必要性、统一性和目的性提供了有益的启示。     

我国企业社会责任报告第三方审验问题研究

正一、引言近几年,我国的企业社会责任报告数量迅速增加,从2008年的169份到2009年的646份,再到2010年的731份,以及2011年的817份,中国企业社会责任报告发布数量在2009年     

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。     

我国保险公司社会责任状况研究——基于保险公司社会责任报告的分析

本文基于2010年度公开披露的68家保险公司社会责任年度报告,从披露格式和披露内容两个方面对我国保险行业公司社会责任履行情况进行分析。研究发现,多数保险公司积极履行了对股东、客户与合作伙伴、员工、社会公众和政府的社会责任,保险公司社会责任已由“理念”阶段进入到“实践”阶段,为社会经济发展做出了贡献,但总体上还处于初级阶段。最后针对保险公司在履行社会责任方面存在的问题提出相应对策和建议。     

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.     

浅论公司社会责任

公司的社会责任理论发轫于美国。传统公司法基本理念是,公司是为了实现股东利益而存在的盈利组织。但随着经济民主和公平原则的发展,现在公司理论认为公司不能仅以此为唯一目标,还负有维护和增进利益相关人利益的义务。我国新《公司法》亦对此做出了相关规定。     

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。     

论中外社会责任报告及信息披露制度

本文从中外社会责任报告及其信息披露的发展及现状出发,探讨了其特点,并从中得到启示。     

浅论公司社会责任

传统公司理念认为公司存在的唯一任务是追求利润最大化，由此导致了一系列社会问题，公司的社会责任愈来愈成为社会关注的热点和焦点。新《公司法》第五条的规定，标志着我国从法律层面引进公司社会责任的理念。然而，在我国社会主义市场经济体制尚未健全、相关的法律法规尚不完善的社会背景下，公司社会责任的落实还面临许多新情况、新问题，需要继续深入探讨和进一步完善。     

我国公司社会责任

公司承担社会责任是我国新公司法新规定的要求,现代公司追求股东利益最大化的同时,应该承担相应的社会责任,关注公司非股东等利益相关者的利益。本文从从公司社会责任理论基础出发,通过对这一理念的含义、特征进行分析,结合我国的公司社会责任立法现状与不足,提出完善我国公司社会责任制度相关立法对策。     

Corporate social responsibility committees and the use of corporate social responsibility assurance services

This study examines whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) committees associate with the external assurance of CSR reports. Specifically, we consider the presence and effectiveness of CSR committees. Using a sample of Australian firms over the period 2004–2016, we show the mere presence of a CSR committee is not related to the external assurance of CSR. However, CSR committee effectiveness is positively related. In addition, firms with higher CSR committee effectiveness are more likely to seek external assurance provided by the Big4 accountancy firms and acquire financial audit and CSR assurance services from the same provider. Taken together, CSR committee effectiveness plays an active role in CSR assurance services. Our results are particularly relevant to those with interests in understanding the demand and choice of external CSR assurance services, as well as the impact of corporate governance mechanisms on these services.     

The disclosure of corporate social responsibility reports and sales performance in China

Based on legitimacy and stakeholder theory, we investigate whether there is an association between the disclosure of corporate social responsibility reports and a firm's sales performance in China. The empirical results reveal that the return on sales and sales growth are positively associated with the level of corporate social responsibility reporting in China. This positive association is strengthened when firms have concentrated customers. Firms use corporate social responsibility reports to improve sales performance and attract customers, who are one of their major stakeholders, and retain their legitimacy.     

Cross-listing and corporate social responsibility

This paper investigates the dynamics of cross-listing and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Using a sample of 10,815 firm-year observations from 54 countries over the period 2002–2011, we find that cross-listed firms have better CSR performance than non–cross-listed domestic firms. This result is robust to endogeneity and different types of cross-listing. We also find that CSR increases (decreases) significantly after cross-listing in (delisting from) U.S. markets. The positive impact of cross-listing on CSR performance is stronger for firms from countries with weaker institutions, lower country-level sustainability, and higher liability of foreignness, and for firms operating in industries with high litigation risk. Finally, we find that cross-listed firms with better CSR performance exhibit higher valuations.     

Public family businesses and corporate social responsibility assurance: The role of mimetic pressures

Extant research focuses on firms’ voluntary demand for corporate social responsibility assurance (CSRA) and highlights the roles of country- and industry-level factors on firms’ CSRA decisions. We use different types of agency problems to explain their CSRA decisions at the firm level and explain why over time public family businesses (PFBs) vary in their resistance to the mimetic pressures from earlier CSRA adopters in the same sector. We analyze a sample of firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and Taipei Exchange firms during 2014–2017 and find that the likelihood of acquiring CSRA is lower in PFBs than in non-family firms. Furthermore, we find that the industry-level mimetic pressures weaken the negative association between the likelihood of acquiring CSRA and PFBs with less severe central agency problems. However, PFBs with severer central agency problems are still unwilling to acquire CSRA even under the pressure from peer CSRA adopters.     

Stock repurchasing and corporate social responsibility

Stock repurchases are controversial. Researchers often view the positive association between free cash flow and the volume of the stock repurchases to be in the shareholders’ interest and the positive association between executive options and stock repurchases to be in the managers’ interest. Using firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) ratings as a measure of ethical culture—one that increases the cost of self-serving behavior for managers— we examine whether a firm’s CSR rating is related to its stock repurchase decisions. Although the baseline regression shows a positive association between CSR and repurchases, we find that CSR amplifies the positive association between free cash flow and stock repurchases and lessens the positive association between executive options and stock repurchases. These results indicate that ethical culture might play a role in repurchase decisions: it may encourage repurchases aligned with shareholders’ interests and discourage those primarily in managers’ interest. Furthermore, we also find that high CSR firms are associated with a greater completion rate of announced repurchase programs and receive more favorable stock market reaction to their repurchase announcements.     

Political sentiment and corporate social responsibility

This paper examines the association between firm-level political sentiment and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Drawing inferences from signaling and resource-based theory, we posit a positive relationship between political sentiment and CSR. Using 23,160 firm-year observations of US public firms between 2002 and 2018 as our sample, we find empirical support for our prediction. In addition, the positive relationship between political sentiment and CSR is driven by the environment, community relations, employee relations, and diversity dimensions of CSR activities. We find consistent evidence when we measure CSR using some ‘real effect’ variables. Our cross-sectional analyses reveal that the positive association between political sentiment and CSR is more evident for firms that have a high level of information asymmetry and firms that are large, mature, and active in political lobbying. Our findings remain robust to a batch of sensitivity and endogeneity tests. Overall, our findings advance the literature by highlighting the interplay between politics and firms in an ever-changing political environment.     

Accounting conservatism and corporate social responsibility

We examine the association between accounting conservatism, expressed in the form of asymmetric timeliness of recognition of economic gains and losses, and corporate social responsibility (CSR). We provide evidence that, under unfavorable macroeconomic conditions and financial constraints, as well as increased levels of outside pressure from debtholders and equity holders, catering for capital providers through conservative reporting becomes a managerial priority over engagement in CSR. Our results overall indicate that, for our whole sample period (starting in the early 2000s), higher levels of conservatism are negatively associated with a CSR orientation shown by firms; however, our analysis also indicates a significant reversing trend regarding the effect of conservatism on CSR, coinciding with the post-financial-crisis period. The findings are robust to a number of specifications and tests, including the use of an instrumental variable approach explicitly addressing endogeneity biases related to reverse causality concerns. Our study suggests that, under monitoring pressure from financial stakeholders, firms prioritize commitment to accounting conservatism over the needs of non-financial stakeholders and other interest groups.     

Auditor selection and corporate social responsibility

This study examines the association between the selection of an industry‐specialist auditor and corporate social responsibility (CSR). We find that firms with higher CSR ratings are more likely to hire industry‐specialist auditors (national‐level industry leaders, city‐level industry leaders or joint city‐national industry leaders). Moreover, firms with better CSR performance related to product quality and the environment in controversial industries are found to select non‐specialized auditors. The results suggest that such firms may overinvest in CSR activities associated with the environment and product issues to disguise the sin nature of their manufactured goods, and simultaneously engage low quality auditors perhaps to avoid full disclosure of potential environmental and legal liabilities. Overall, we conclude that CSR is associated with the non‐controversial firms ensuring high quality financial reporting in response to societal expectations, and thus CSR firms in such industries have strong incentives to engage industry‐specialist auditors.     

Accounting conservatism and corporate social responsibility

In this paper, we examine whether a firm's stakeholder orientation, as manifested by its social responsibility endeavors, matters for its choice of accounting conservatism. We find that the level of conservatism in financial reporting significantly increases with socially responsible activities. This result is robust to several conservatism aspects, including market-based conservatism measure, the aggregate of R&D reserves, advertising reserves, and LIFO reserves, and accrual-based conservatism construct. Moreover, our two-stage regression results validate that conservatism is more pronounced for firms that devote more resources to social responsibility programs. Consistent with stakeholder theory, these findings indicate that CSR-oriented firms are more likely to use accounting conservatism to credibly commit to acting in the interests of stakeholders. As a whole, our results provide a novel implication that the extent of accounting conservatism can be entailed by a firm's efforts to enhance stakeholder relations.     

Institutional shareholders and corporate social responsibility

This study uses two distinct quasi-natural experiments to examine the effect of institutional shareholders on corporate social responsibility (CSR). We first find that an exogenous increase in institutional holding caused by Russell Index reconstitutions improves portfolio firms’ CSR performance. We then find that firms have lower CSR ratings when shareholders are distracted due to exogenous shocks. Moreover, the effect of institutional ownership is stronger in CSR categories that are financially material. Furthermore, we show that institutional shareholders influence CSR through CSR-related proposals. Overall, our results suggest that institutional shareholders can generate real social impact.