Corporate Social Responsibility Information Disclosure and Innovation Sustainability: Evidence from China

Wenxiu Hu,Weiguo Zhang,Jinzhu Du

doi:10.3390/su12010409

Abstract

We selected the Chinese A-share listed companies during period of 2007 to 2017 as the research subject, and from the perspective of information and reputation effects, we examined the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosure and innovation sustainability. The results show that CSR information disclosure has a significant positive relationship with innovation sustainability. Analysis of the effects channel suggests that the information effect plays a dominant role; CSR information disclosure can alleviate the information asymmetry between managers and investors, controlling shareholders and minority shareholders, and alleviate the financing constraint problems, thereby improving innovation sustainability. Our findings support the information hypothesis but not the reputation hypothesis. The relationship between CSR information disclosure and innovation sustainability is more significant in non-state-owned companies. The moderating effect shows that managerial stock incentives can strengthen the positive relationship between CSR information disclosure and innovation sustainability. A series of robustness test results show that the conclusions are reliable. The research is important for promoting the fulfillment of CSR, improving corporate innovation, and promoting the healthy development of the capital market.

Highlights

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important contributor to economic development [1,2,3] and reflects the continuing commitment by firms to responsible behavior [4]
We found a positive relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosure and innovation sustainability, and the information effect of CSR information disclosure plays a crucial role, which broadens the theoretical research on the economic consequences of CSR information disclosure, providing reference for improving the quality of corporate governance, protecting the interests of investors and stabilizing the capital market from a new perspective
The standard deviations of institutional ownership, investment opportunities, firm size, and firm ages were slightly larger than the other variables, indicating that some differences were present between the variables in different companies

Summary

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important contributor to economic development [1,2,3] and reflects the continuing commitment by firms to responsible behavior [4]. With the transformation and upgrading of China’s economy, innovation is playing an increasingly important role in maintaining sustainable corporate development. Innovation sustainability means that if a corporate has been innovative in the past, it has a high probability of being innovative in the few years, showing certain continuity in time, with a time accumulation effect. Innovation sustainability can increase the market share and sales revenue of a company’s products, and provide financial support for future innovation [7]. Determining how to treat the relationship between CSR information disclosure and innovation sustainability is worthy of further study

Objectives

Results

Conclusion