Corporate Social Performance,Competitive Advantage,Earnings Persistence and Firm Value

In this paper, using a generalised valuation framework inspired by Ohlson, we show that corporate social performance (CSP) is value relevant and that, in particular, it appears to be associated with a higher coefficient on earnings. This could be attributable to either a lower cost of equity for these firms, or greater earnings persistence. We show that, once industry membership is controlled for, any cost of capital effect is minimal. Regression tests based on realised earnings confirm that the valuation effect is attributable mainly to greater earnings persistence in firms with higher levels of CSP. These outcomes are consistent with higher CSP conferring a competitive advantage on firms.     

Managerial Entrenchment and Corporate Social Performance

Abstract:  We examine empirically the relationships amongst managerial entrenchment practices, social performance, and financial performance. We hypothesize that entrenched managers may collude with non-shareholder stakeholders in order to reinforce their entrenchment strategy; this is particularly so in firms that have efficient internal control mechanisms. Moreover, we prove that the combination of entrenchment strategies and the implementation of socially responsible actions have particularly negative effects on financial performance. We test these contentions with a sample of 358 companies, from 22 different countries, for the period 2002–2005.     

中央企业上市公司环境责任与公司价值的相关性研究

本文以中央企业上市公司为样本,讨论国有企业环境责任与公司价值之间的关系。文章在控制公司规模、行业竞争力等变量的条件下,回归结果发现：中央企业上市公司环境责任与公司价值之间存在正相关关系,但不显著。因此,很难认为公司承担更多环境责任能够促进公司价值的增长。     

Social Capital,Trust, and Firm Performance: The Value of Corporate Social Responsibility during the Financial Crisis

During the 2008–2009 financial crisis, firms with high social capital, as measured by corporate social responsibility (CSR) intensity, had stock returns that were four to seven percentage points higher than firms with low social capital. High‐CSR firms also experienced higher profitability, growth, and sales per employee relative to low‐CSR firms, and they raised more debt. This evidence suggests that the trust between a firm and both its stakeholders and investors, built through investments in social capital, pays off when the overall level of trust in corporations and markets suffers a negative shock.     

社会资本、企业创新与会计绩效

本文引入"社会资本"这一社会学概念,从微观视角实证检验我国各省社会资本水平差异对企业创新及会计绩效的影响机制和作用效果。研究结果表明:在社会资本较高的省份,上市公司创新水平越高,具体表现为专利的产出和被引用次数越高;进一步研究发现,社会资本可以通过缓解融资约束和减少知识产权被侵权风险等途径来促进企业创新。此外,当社会资本较高时,企业创新水平对未来会计绩效的提升作用更大。综合本文研究结果,作者认为社会资本是一种促进社会信任合作的驱动力,可以提升企业创新能力和会计绩效,从而对创新型经济发展产生正面影响。     

The Effects of Corporate Social Performance on the Cost of Corporate Debt and Credit Ratings

This study investigates the differential impact that various dimensions of corporate social performance have on the pricing of corporate debt as well as the assessment of the credit quality of specific bond issues. The empirical analysis, based on an extensive longitudinal data set, suggests that overall, good performance is rewarded and corporate social transgressions are penalized through lower and higher corporate bond yield spreads, respectively. Similar conclusions can be drawn when focusing on either the bond rating assigned to a specific debt issue or the probability of it being considered to be an asset of speculative grade.     

企业社会责任视角下的财务绩效研究

本文在利益相关者理论框架下,选取适当的指标测量企业的社会责任履行情况、评价企业财务绩效,同时,设置其他影响财务绩效的因素作为研究的控制变量;选取我国沪深两市A股上市公司2008-2012年5年的面板数据,通过建立个体固定效应面板数据模型,对模型进行描述性统计分析、回归分析与稳健性检验,得出结论:对大多数利益相关者的社会责任能提升企业财务绩效,但企业社会责任对财务绩效的积极影响具有一定的滞后性和长期性.同时,根据研究过程中发现的问题和研究结论,为企业社会责任战略的制定提出了意见和建议.     

Instrumental Variables Analysis and the Role of National Culture in Corporate Finance

In this article, we identify and review instrumental variables used to study the relation between national culture and finance. Recognizing that an effective instrument must be correlated with the endogenous variable (relevance condition) and must not be correlated with the outcome variable (exclusion condition), we conduct analysis and provide theoretical arguments to ascertain the ability of each candidate instrument to meet these criteria. We further document where to locate the data to form the actual instruments. Overall, we design this study to help future authors weigh the strengths and weaknesses of using specific instruments and to better inform empirical strategies for addressing the endogeneity concerns inherent in the “culture and finance” literature.     

Corporate Real Estate Ownership Implications: International Performance Evidence

In this paper we explore corporate real estate ownership internationally. Based on a sample of 4,636 companies from 18 industries and 9 countries we document distinct patterns and trends in the corporate ownership level of real estate. Real estate ownership appears to be driven by industrial rather than national differences, with corporate real estate ratios ranging between 0.13 for Business Services and 0.63 for the Mining sector. Overall, real estate ownership appears to be decreasing over time, which may be due to the gaining popularity of lease alternatives. When analyzing the stock performance of the companies in our sample, we discover a significantly negative relationship between real estate ownership and a firms systematic risk. Idiosyncratic risk bears no significant relationship with real estate ownership. With respect to stock returns our results show that returns are lowest among firms with the highest real estate ownership levels in each industry. After controlling for the variation in risks, the remaining return patterns differ strongly across industries, with a significantly negative relationship between stock outperformance and real estate ownership for Communications and Business Services and a positive but not significant relationship for Transportation.     

技术创新投入、社会责任承担对财务绩效的协同影响研究

本文基于两阶段投资决策模型,理论挖掘技术创新投入、社会责任承担与企业财务绩效三者之间的复杂关系,并以2009-2011年的中国高新技术企业为研究样本,进一步探索技术创新投入和企业社会责任对财务绩效的协同影响。研究表明:(1)企业技术创新投入能够正向促进企业的短期财务绩效和长期财务绩效。(2)企业积极承担社会责任能够直接促进企业的长期财务绩效,但对短期财务绩效没有显著影响。(3)技术创新投入调节增强了企业社会责任对企业长期财务绩效的积极影响;同时企业社会责任也对技术创新投入与长期财务绩效的正向关系发挥了显著的调节增强作用。     

The Impact of Sovereign Wealth Funds on Corporate Value and Performance

The last few years have seen a remarkable increase in the participation of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in global capital markets. In this article, the author draws on a unique dataset of SWF international holdings—one that dates back to the year 2002 and includes individual SWF holdings in more than 8,000 companies in 58 countries—to provide evidence of the impact of SWFs on corporate values and operating performance. Contrary to claims that SWFs expropriate minority investors and pursue political agendas, the main finding of the author's study is that SWF ownership is associated with positive changes in both corporate market values and operating returns. In support of these findings, the author also identifies three important ways that SWFs work to increase the performance and value of the companies they invest in: (1) as long‐term holders that provide a stable source of financing; (2) as representatives of deep pools of international capital in search of global diversification opportunities that are likely to provide companies with a lower‐cost (as well as more “patient”) source of equity capital; and (3) as politically well‐connected strategic investors that enable their companies to leverage important connections when accessing new product markets.     

Corporate Social Responsibility,Tax Aggressiveness,and Firm Market Value

This paper examines the relationship of corporate social responsibility (CSR), tax aggressiveness, and firm market value. An economic model has been developed to show that profit‐maximization firms are willing to incur additional costs in CSR, such as paying more taxes, as long as they can differentiate their products from non‐CSR firms, and that socially conscious consumers will buy products from CSR firms at prices higher than those of non‐CSR firms. The empirical study in this paper indicates that the higher the CSR ranking of a firm, the less likely a firm is to engage in tax aggressiveness. It also indicates that a reputation of higher CSR will enhance firm market value. Using Canadian companies listed in the S&P/TSX 60 index, I find that both firms’ five‐year effective tax rates and annual effective tax rates are positively associated with their overall CSR scores as well as with their social scores. Firms’ five‐year effective tax rates are also positively associated with their governance index. I also find that firms’ overall CSR ranking and governance scores are positively associated with their market value.     

企业文化与环境经营价值体系的构建

在企业经营中,生态环境影响的重要性日益凸显,立足于企业文化特征,探究文化因素对环境经营与企业价值观体系形成的具体影响及作用路径,是当前环境管理会计研究的一个重要课题。本文根据Edgar H·Scheinr提出的组织文化模型,构建了基于企业文化的环境经营价值体系,同时依据该价值体系提出了环境经营的具体框架结构,并将企业文化建设嵌入于环境经营的战略之中。文章对于促进环境管理会计理论与方法体系的建设具有积极的现实意义。     

Environmental and Social Matters in Mandatory Corporate Reporting: An Academic Note

This note provides an overview of mandatory corporate reporting for environmental and social matters in Canada, the United States and the EU. When researchers and educators consider reporting on these matters, they often look to voluntary corporate reporting. However, we argue that a lot of related information exists in companies’ mandatory reports, either in the disclosures dictated by securities regulators, or via other required channels. Our objective is threefold. First, to describe what currently exists regarding mandatory reporting on environmental and social matters (to inform). Second, to discuss several of the current ongoing debates regarding such reporting (to encourage discourse). Third, to encourage research into the mandatory reporting of environmental and social matters.     

Social and Environmental Disclosure and Corporate Characteristics: A Research Note and Extension

This paper is concerned with the attempts to explain the disclosure of social and environmental information in the annual reports of large companies by reference to observable characteristics of those companies. An extensive literature has sought to establish whether variables such as corporate size, profit and industry segments can explain corporations' disclosure practices. The results from that predominantly North American and Australasian literature are largely inconclusive. This paper provides an extension of that literature by considering a more disaggregated specification of social and environmental disclosure and by employing a detailed time-series data set. By so doing, the paper tests two possible explanations for the inconclusiveness of prior research: namely that any relationships between corporate characteristics and disclosure are dependent upon the type of disclosure and that any such relationships are not stable through time. The results provide support for these explanations as sufficient, if not necessary, conditions for explaining the inconsistency in prior results.     

企业社会责任与财务绩效之间交互跨期影响实证研究

本文以我国2007-2011年沪市A股上市公司为研究样本,通过尝试建立企业社会责任综合评价指数和剔除盈余管理之后的财务绩效指标,运用系统GMM方法,实证分析了企业社会责任与财务绩效之间的交互跨期影响。研究结果表明,滞后一期的社会责任对当期财务绩效有显著正向影响,当期财务绩效对当期社会责任有显著正向影响。这些研究结论对我们深入理解企业社会责任与财务绩效的关系,对企业提高社会责任意识,自觉履行社会责任具有一定的启示意义。     

Driving Performance Through Corporate Culture: Interviews with Four Experts

Establishing an effective link between corporate strategy and employee performance has traditionally been seen as a function of organizational structure and internal marketing—that is, of getting the right compensation systems in place to reward the desired behavior, and relentlessly communicating the strategy to all employees. But, according to the four organizational behavior experts who were interviewed for this article, there's more to it than that. Also important is a market- and customer-oriented corporate culture, which can be a highly effective tool for companies seeking to improve performance and increase value.
This article presents four distinctive, but complementary views on why and how senior executives should play a significant role in managing the cultures within their organizations. According to these experts, it is possible to both transform and harness the power of a culture by paying greater attention to succession issues; articulating and communicating an organization's core values; aligning a company's behavioral norms with employee assumptions; and offering "constructive reconciliation of cultural differences." In the last analysis, a company's culture is said to be the most effective way for executives to ensure that their employees will perform "when no one is looking."