ESG Information Disclosure and Corporate Earnings Management——Research on the Moderating Effect Based on Media Attention

Abstract

ESG information disclosure includes environmental conservation, social responsibility and corporate governance. It concerns the sustainable development of the company. The internal relationship between ESG disclosure level and earnings management and its action mechanism is an urgent problem to be solved. This paper takes A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2009 to 2021 as the research object to empirically study the correlation between ESG disclosure and corporate performance management. While introducing media attention as a moderating variable, we will empirically study the moderating effect of media attention on the relationship between ESG disclosure and enterprise performance management. The empirical results show that: (1) there is a negative correlation between the level of ESG disclosure and earnings management, that is, the higher the level of ESG disclosure, the lower the level of earnings management; (2) Media attention makes up for the gap caused by the lack of ESG information disclosure. In companies with low media exposure, ESG disclosure has a more significant deterrent effect on corporate performance management. The research in this paper reveals the governance effect of ESG information disclosure on corporate earnings management, verifies that ESG information has the effect of transmitting higher quality earnings information, and provides a reference for the research on ESG information disclosure in China.