Are CSR Disclosures Value Relevant? Cross-Country Evidence

Using proprietary data that rate corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures of firms in 21 countries, this study examines how the strength of nation-level institutions affects the extent of CSR disclosures. We then examine the valuation implications of CSR disclosures and consider how the relation between CSR disclosures and firm value varies across countries. In contrast to prior studies, we separate CSR disclosures into an expected and unexpected portion where the unexpected portion is a proxy for the incremental information contained in CSR disclosures. We observe a positive relation between unexpected CSR disclosure and firm value measured by Tobin's Q. We also find that, while countries with strong nation-level institutions promote more CSR disclosures, the valuation of a unit increase in unexpected CSR disclosures is higher when nation-level institutions are weak.     

Do Board's Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy and Orientation Influence Environmental Sustainability Disclosure? UK Evidence

The environmental implications of corporate economic activities have led to growing demands for firms and their boards to adopt sustainable strategies and to disseminate more useful information about their activities and impacts on environment. This paper investigates the impact of board's corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy and orientation on the quantity and quality of environmental sustainability disclosure in UK listed firms. We find that effective board CSR strategy and CSR‐oriented directors have a positive and significant impact on the quality of environmental sustainability disclosure, but not on the quantity. Our findings also suggest that the existence of a CSR committee and issuance of a stand‐alone CSR report are positively and significantly related to environmental sustainability disclosure. When we distinguish between firms with high and low environmental risk, we find that the board CSR/sustainability practices that affect the quantity (quality) of environmental sustainability disclosure appear to be driven more by highly (lowly) environmentally sensitive firms. These results suggest that the board CSR/sustainability practices play an important role in ensuring a firm's legitimacy and accountability towards stakeholders. Our findings shed new light on this under‐researched area and could be of interest to companies, policy‐makers and other stakeholders. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Reputation and Corporate Social Responsibility Aberrations,Trends, and Hypocrisy: Reactions to Firm Choices in the Stock Option Backdating Scandal

Drawing on strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) and reputation theory, this paper examines the market reaction to firm disclosures of involvement in the US stock option backdating scandal. We examine how a firm's prior signals regarding ethical behaviour and values, as demonstrated through CSR initiatives, may both ameliorate and exacerbate market reactions. CSR initiatives may buffer a firm against general wrong‐doing but expose it to greater scrutiny and sanction for related wrong‐doing. Our results show that firms with enhanced overall reputations for CSR are partially buffered from scandal revelations. However, we find that when firms possess an enhanced reputation for CSR associated with corporate governance, violations pertaining specifically to governance are viewed as hypocritical and more harshly sanctioned. We also find lower and negative market reactions for firms that delay but self‐disclose their involvement in the scandal. The study extends the emergent, related literatures on strategic CSR and reputation management, and documents dynamics in the relationship between corporate social and financial performance.     

关键审计事项披露与企业会计稳健性——基于准自然实验和文本分析的证据

关键审计事项披露对增强财务报告可信度、提高信息透明度以及提升企业会计信息质量具有重要意义。基于2014—2020年我国上市公司样本数据,采用多期双重差分法和文本分析方法,实证检验了关键审计事项披露对企业会计稳健性的影响。研究发现：关键审计事项披露提升了企业会计稳健性,且在非国有企业和净资产收益率小于6%的企业中正向影响更大;关键审计事项披露数量越多,关键审计事项结论性评述积极程度和关键审计事项审计应对力度越高,披露资产减值类和损益类关键审计事项对企业会计稳健性的提升越显著;进一步分析发现,这一效应在企业信息透明度较低以及审计监督效应较强的企业中更为明显;作用机制检验表明,关键审计事项披露通过提高市场感知的审计质量和报表盈余的审计质量提升了企业会计稳健性。     

强制社会责任披露能否驱动企业绿色转型?——基于我国上市公司绿色专利数据的证据

基于2008年企业社会责任（CSR）强制披露政策出台这一外生冲击事件构造准自然实验,利用手工搜集的绿色专利数据,通过PSM DID的方法,从绿色创新的角度考察强制CSR披露对企业绿色转型的影响。研究表明,强制CSR披露通过加强企业规制合法性和规范合法性动机,驱动企业绿色转型;这种驱动作用在非国有企业、信息环境较好的企业和低集中度市场中更为明显。进一步研究发现,强制CSR披露能够通过驱动企业绿色转型来提高企业绩效。研究结论验证了强制CSR披露在驱动企业绿色转型方面的有效性,深化和丰富了强制CSR披露相关理论,对优化企业环境治理决策与驱动经济绿色发展具有重要指导意义。     

企业社会责任信息披露能缓解融资约束吗？——基于A股上市公司的实证分析

目前,国内对于企业社会责任信息披露实施后果的研究还为数不多。本文从融资约束这一视角进行实证研究,以2010~2011年Ａ股上市公司为样本,考察了企业社会责任信息披露缓解融资约束的能力。研究结果显示,企业社会责任信息披露质量越高,面临的融资约束程度越低,并且企业社会责任信息披露缓解融资约束程度还受所有权性质和所在区域的影响。     

Corporate carbon risk,voluntary disclosure,and cost of capital: South African evidence

The study examines the interplay among corporate carbon risk, voluntary disclosure, and cost of capital within the context of South Africa, a “rising power” in the climate policy debate. We develop a system of simultaneous equations models and analyze data drawn from firms traded on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE), for the period 2010 to 2015, using the three‐stage least squares procedure. We find that voluntary carbon disclosure is associated with lower overall (and equity) cost of capital, after controlling for corporate carbon risk. We also find that firms with higher carbon risk tend to provide better quality carbon disclosure and signal the possibility of high carbon risk to avoid negative market reactions resulting from concealing carbon information. Although the capital market does not appear to incorporate individual firm's carbon risk exposure into the required cost of capital, we find that it generally requires higher returns for companies operating in carbon‐intensive sectors. These findings suggest that firms could exploit the virtues of voluntary carbon disclosure to reduce their overall (and equity) cost of capital. Our findings also imply that regulators and policymakers could point to the cost of capital reducing role of voluntary disclosure to lure firms into voluntarily providing superior quality carbon disclosures.     

Litigation Risk and Corporate Voluntary Disclosure: Evidence from Two Quasi-Natural Experiments

Abstract

We examine the effect of litigation risk on corporate voluntary disclosure using two quasi-natural experiments, which have substantial and opposing impacts on the litigation risk of firms headquartered in the Ninth Circuit. We find that firms in the Ninth Circuit decrease (increase) the quantity and quality of their voluntary disclosure, relative to control firms, when their litigation risk is lowered (elevated). The pre-treatment test shows an indistinguishable trend between treatment and control firms. A battery of robustness checks indicates that our results are not driven by alternative explanations. We hypothesize and find that the impact of litigation risk is more pronounced when firms have bad news and that firms are more likely to preempt bad news through voluntary disclosures when litigation risk is elevated. Overall, results from both experiments suggest that litigation risk causally increases corporate voluntary disclosure.     

社会责任报告审计能否提升CSR信息披露质量？——来自我国上市公司的经验证据

外部审计作为重要的公司治理机制,有助于提升企业经济绩效。社会责任报告审计能对企业社会责任信息的披露进行监督约束、风险评估与咨询规划,进而提升信息披露质量。以2010—2013年沪深上市公司为样本进行实证检验后发现,社会责任报告审计显著改善了企业社会责任信息披露质量。进一步研究发现,企业大股东监督力度越强,社会责任报告审计对企业社会责任信息披露质量的促进作用越明显。此外,与国有企业相比,民营企业中大股东监督在更大的程度上增强了社会责任报告审计对企业社会责任信息披露质量的促进作用。     

An Empirical Analysis of Triple Bottom-Line Reporting and its Determinants: Evidence from the United States and Japan

This paper investigates triple bottom‐line (TBL) disclosures of 50 of the largest US and Japanese companies. Twenty disclosure criteria were developed for each of the TBL disclosure areas: economic, social, and environmental. Disclosure information was examined in annual reports, stand‐alone reports, and special website reports. Regression analysis was used to examine empirically the determinants of TBL disclosure practice. Our results indicate that, for total TBL disclosure (combining economic, social, and environmental categories), the extent of reporting is higher for firms with larger size, lower profitability, lower liquidity, and for firms with membership in the manufacturing industry. Further analysis indicates that the results for the total TBL disclosure are primarily driven by non‐economic disclosures. We also find that the extent of overall TBL reporting is higher for Japanese firms, with environmental disclosure being the key driver. This result could be attributed to the differences in national cultures, the regulatory environment, and other institutional factors between the United States and Japan.     

A Study of Corporate Disclosure Practice and Effectiveness in Hong Kong

The recent economic turmoil in Asia has led to a wider recognition of the importance of corporate transparency and disclosures in financial dealings. The objective of this study is to provide comprehensive and up-to-date evidence of current practice and perceived effectiveness of corporate disclosure of listed companies in an emerging economy—Hong Kong. The study compares the perceptions of chief financial officers (CFOs) and financial analysts about a variety of information flow, disclosure and capital market efficiency issues. It also seeks to determine whether there is a perceived need for increased financial reporting regulations and to what extent this and other alternative means might improve market functioning. While both subject groups believed that a majority of firms only adopt a conservative one-way disclosure strategy and the existence of a communication gap, analysts perceived a much higher need than CFOs for increased financial reporting regulations. Neither group thought that enhancing disclosure requirements alone would suffice to close this gap. Instead, they suggested an improvement in the quality of the communication and disclosure processes through means such as choosing more appropriate communication media, formulating a more proactive disclosure strategy, enhancing investor relationship, and voluntarily reporting more information desired by users.     

Board internationalization and corporate social responsibility

This study examines the association between board internationalization and firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance in China during 2009–2019. Using a large dataset of director nationalities and CSR scores, we find that foreign directors promote CSR performance as evidenced by higher CSR scores. We further document that this relationship is more pronounced among government-controlled firms, firms with better corporate governance, and firms operating under stricter institutional environments. These findings remain valid after sequential robustness checks. Overall, our findings imply that foreign directors motivate the board of directors and their firms to actively pursue and practice social responsibility. Our study enriches the literature on the outcomes of board internationalization and determinants of CSR and provides the internationalization of corporate governance mechanisms a reasonable basis.     

Relationship between Corporate Climate Change Disclosures and Firm Factors

As carbon regulation evolves and becomes specialized in addressing carbon reduction issues, stakeholders will demand that firms provide increased information regarding corporate climate change practices. This paper contributes to the international research that examines the relationship between environmental information disclosures and additional firm factors. To do so, we have conducted an empirical analysis of the relationship between the corporate climate change disclosure practices of firms listed in the Athens Stock Exchange and firm factors, such as size, profitability, leverage and activity sector. Our results indicate there is a significant positive relationship between size and increased corporate disclosures regarding climate change practices. However, no significant relationship is detected between profitability or leverage and corporate climate change disclosures. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

How Corporate Social Responsibility Engagement Strategy Moderates the CSR–Financial Performance Relationship

We propose that firm profits are shaped by how firms engage in corporate social responsibility. Recent research on the corporate social responsibility (CSR)–corporate financial performance (CFP) relationship proposes a variety of contextual and organizational factors to create a more robust link. However, few of these studies explore the role of the CSR engagement strategy. Drawing on absorptive capacity theory and related perspectives such as time compression diseconomies, asset mass efficiencies, and path dependence theory, we argue that when a firm engages in CSR slowly and consistently, focuses on related CSR dimensions, and starts with internal dimensions of CSR, CFP will be enhanced. With longitudinal data collected from 130 firms from 1995 to 2007, we find that firms benefit more when they adopt a CSR engagement strategy that is consistent, involves related dimensions of CSR, and begins with aspects of CSR that are more internal to the firm. The pace of the CSR engagement strategy, however, does not moderate the CSR–CFP relationship. This study helps fill the gap in CSR research by showing that, regardless of contextual factors, a firm can choose the proper strategy to enhance the financial benefits of the CSR engagement.     

我国上市公司社会责任信息披露的现状分析

文章首次对我国上市公司社会责任信息的披露现状进行了描述性研究。研究发现，公司社会责任信息披露表现不同的公司在规模和盈利能力上存在显著的差异，同时还发现，我国上市公司社会责任信息的披露在《上市公司治理准则》出台后有了明显的改善，但是在披露内容和披露方式上有很大的随意性和不一致性，尤其是在信息披露数量提高的同时，披露的质量并未有相应的提高。     

Global Warming Disclosures: Impact of Kyoto Protocol Across Countries

The Kyoto Protocol that went into effect in February 2005 set limits on the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We document in this study that firms from countries ratifying the Protocol and setting limits on GHG emissions (i.e., European Union [EU] countries, Canada and Japan) are associated with higher GHG disclosures compared with firms in the United States, which has not ratified the Protocol. Additionally, we document that firms from India, which has not set any limits on GHG emissions, make even less GHG disclosures than firms from all other countries covered in this study. Our findings also show that GHG disclosures are greater for Canadian and Japanese firms compared with firms from the EU countries and that they also differ somewhat across EU firms. These findings suggest that ratification of the Protocol and limits on emissions improve pollution disclosures. In the absence of Protocol ratification, mandatory disclosure requirements may be needed to ensure adequate and reliable pollution disclosures.     

Analyst following,disclosure quality,and discretionary impairments: Evidence from China

Financial statement preparers’ discretion in fair value measurements is integral to asset impairment accounting. Firms may misuse this discretion to report more or less impairment loss than is warranted by underlying economic circumstances. Using data from a sample of publicly listed firms in China, this study finds that analyst following reduces abnormal impairment loss, the portion of reported impairment loss that cannot be explained by corporate economic circumstances and that this effect is more pronounced for firms with lower information disclosure quality. However, the reducing effects of analyst following and its interaction with disclosure quality are greater for income‐decreasing than for income‐increasing abnormal impairment loss. Additional analyses support the argument that these differences are attributable to the dominance of accounting’s contracting role over its informational role. Overall, the findings indicate that the influence of analyst following on discretionary impairment accounting decisions is moderated by disclosure quality and by the relative importance of accounting’s contracting and informational roles in an emerging market setting.     

Factors influencing the quality of corporate environmental disclosure

Many firms choose to communicate their environmental strategies through voluntary environmental disclosures. This paper examines patterns in the quality of voluntary environmental disclosures made by a sample of around 450 large UK companies drawn from a diverse range of industrial sectors. The analysis distinguishes between five facets of quality, including the disclosure of group‐wide environmental policies, environmental impact targets and an environmental audit. We examine how the decisions firms face regarding each facet of quality are determined by firm and industry characteristics, and find the quality of disclosure to be determined by a firm's size and the nature of its business activities. Specifically, we find high quality disclosure to be primarily associated with larger firms and those in sectors most closely related to environmental concerns. In contrast to several recent contributions, we find that the media exposure of companies plays no role in stimulating voluntary disclosures. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Socio-emotional wealth and corporate responses to environmental hostility: Are family firms more stakeholder oriented?

Do family firms care more for different stakeholders than nonfamily firms when operating in a hostile business environment? This study addresses this question and fills the existing void in family business research. It shows that family-controlled firms adopt corporate social responsibility strategies and balance the demands of internal and external interest groups to preserve their socio-emotional wealth while facing fierce competition, resource scarcity, and penurious economic conditions. More specifically, our analysis of an international sample of 956 listed firms from 2006 to 2014 reveals that family firms show a higher level of corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and better stakeholder orientation than nonfamily firms. Our findings are useful for managers, policymakers, and responsible investors.     

公允价值计量、信息披露质量与价值相关性

新企业会计准则中的公允价值计量对信息披露产生了重要影响。以2006年至2008年深市A股上市企业为样本进行的研究发现,公司受到公允价值计量的积极影响越多,信息披露质量就会越高。高质量的信息披露能够使会计信息的价值相关性得到显著提高,而公允价值计量则能够进一步提高信息披露质量对会计信息价值相关性的改善程度。