Social Responsibility Information Disclosure Research Articles

Can enhanced CSR quality reduce the cost of debt capital? An empirical analysis of CEO expertise and non-financial reporting practices in China

This study aims to investigate whether stockholders and creditors place a positive value on corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosure when making decisions about providing financing to firms, thereby influencing their investment choices. Utilizing data from the China Stock Market & Accounting Research Database (CSMAR) and HEXUN, the study analyzes CSR disclosures and financial data of 7,123 firm-year observations of A-share listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2012 to 2020. A comprehensive methodology involving regression analysis was applied to assess the relationship between CSR quality and the cost of debt capital. Various robustness tests, including different model specifications and alternative variable measurements, were conducted to ensure the reliability and validity of the findings. The results obtained indicate that higher CSR quality significantly correlates with a lower cost of debt capital, supporting the hypothesis that improved CSR disclosure reduces perceived credit risk. However, CEO financial expertise shows a significantly positive relationship with the cost of debt capital. Furthermore, the study reveals that CSR assurance and engagement with Big 4 accounting firms do not noticeably affect the price of debt capital, whereas mandatory CSR reporting does. The findings underscore the importance of CSR quality in financial decision-making, offering valuable insights. AcknowledgmentThis paper is co-funded by the European Union through the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) within the project “EU Best Practice of Life Cycle Assessment, Social, Environmental Accounting and Sustainability Reporting” – 101047667-ERASMUS-JMO-2021-MODULE https://jm.snau.edu.ua/en/eu-best-practice-of-life-cycle-assessment-social-environmental-accounting-and-sustainability-reporting/ Oleh Pasko expresses sincere gratitude for the support from the Kirkland Research Program, generously provided by the Leaders of Change Foundation established by the Polish-American Freedom Foundation.

Can Mandatory Disclosure of CSR Information Drive the Transformation of Firms towards High-Quality Development?

Can Mandatory Disclosure of CSR Information Drive the Transformation of Firms towards High-Quality Development?

Research on Enterprise Green Accounting Information Disclosure under the Background of Low-carbon Economy

In order to explore the low carbon economic background of green accounting information disclosure, understand the industry how to adapt to the sustainable development and environmental trends, the article from the overview of the low carbon economy, analyzes the low carbon economy of home appliance enterprise green accounting information disclosure requirements, after according to the current home appliance enterprise green accounting information disclosure problems put forward the specific solutions, including encouraging home appliance enterprise voluntary disclosure of social responsibility information, improve the home appliance enterprise green accounting information disclosure constraint system, improve the home appliance enterprise green accounting information disclosure content, etc. Research shows that the green accounting information disclosure in the home appliance industry plays a key role in the era of low-carbon economy, and helps to improve the sustainability, transparency and credibility of enterprises. However, there are still some challenges, in order to achieve a greener and more sustainable economic development, home appliance enterprises need to further improve their green accounting information disclosure practices to meet the growing demand for environmental protection.

Managerial overconfidence and corporate information disclosure

By extracting detailed birth information for managers of Chinese listed firms from 2011 to 2021, we developed a novel measure of overconfidence and applied it to the corporate information disclosure. Our findings demonstrated a close association between managerial overconfidence and both mandatory and voluntary disclosure behaviors exhibited by firms. Specifically, managerial overconfidence significantly contributed to an increase in accrual-based earnings management and the voluntary disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) information by firms. Furthermore, we observed that overconfident managers were more inclined to adopt a positive disclosure tone and tend to underestimate future risks in forward-looking information disclosure. In our additional analysis, we uncovered evidence suggesting that various factors, including corporate governance practices, the types of actual controllers, financing constraints, analyst following, and market competition, might all play a role in influencing corporate information disclosure behavior driven by managerial overconfidence. This study expands on the economic implications of the Upper Echelons Theory and offers pertinent recommendations to enhance the quality of information disclosure.

Impact of Food Corporation Social Responsibility Information Disclosure on the Cost of Equity Capital—Taking Internal Control as the Regulating Variable

Impact of Food Corporation Social Responsibility Information Disclosure on the Cost of Equity Capital—Taking Internal Control as the Regulating Variable

Corporate Social Responsibility Information Disclosure, Environmental Dynamics and Corporate Value

Corporate Social Responsibility Information Disclosure, Environmental Dynamics and Corporate Value

Study of the Role of Financialization in the Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility and Research and Development Investment

Under the social environment of high-quality development and improvement of corporate innovation performance, the purpose of this study is to explore the internal mechanism of corporate social responsibility's impact on research and development investment, in order to find an effective way to promote research and development investment. Corporate social responsibility can not only significantly increase research and development investment, but also promote financialization, which plays an intermediary role with masking effect in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and research and development investment. Therefore, the government should encourage enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities, establish a correct concept of responsibility, and play a role in promoting research and development investment. At the same time, it is also necessary to pay attention to the reputation insurance effect formed by corporate social responsibility, strengthen the strict supervision of listed companies' social responsibility, improve the quality of social responsibility information disclosure, and improve the quality of external supervision and internal control. Preventing contribution of corporate social responsibility to research and development investment from being partially offset and overshadowed by financialization.

Correction: Li et al. Corporate Social Responsibility Information Disclosure and Financial Performance: Is Green Technology Innovation a Missing Link? Sustainability 2023, 15, 11926

The authors would like to make the following corrections to the published paper [...]

Research on the Influence of Fund Holding on Enterprise Green Innovation

Under the background of global environmental problems and the concept of green development put forward by the government, green innovation of enterprises has become an important path to achieve environmental sustainability. Based on the data of listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2020, this paper selects the largest fund among institutional investors to study, and explores the influence and mechanism of fund shareholding and enterprise green innovation. Through research, it is found that fund holding shares is helpful to improve the level of green innovation of enterprises. The moderating effect shows that whether there are defects in internal control have moderating effects on green innovation of enterprises. The influence mechanism shows that corporate social responsibility information disclosure can have an intermediary effect on the influence of fund ownership on corporate green innovation. This paper discusses the influence of fund ownership on enterprise green innovation from the perspective of the largest institutional investor, which supplements the literature of institutional investors and green field, and has practical significance for promoting enterprises to realize green transformation, practicing ESG concept and realizing environmental sustainable development.

Mandatory Disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility and the Quality of Earnings Management

Using the exogenous shock caused by the mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosure policy in 2008, this paper examines the impact of mandatory CSR information disclosure on the earnings management activities of listed firms in China from the perspective of external corporate regulation based on the Difference-in-Differences (DID) method. The results show that mandatory CSR information disclosure can significantly improve the quality of firms’ earnings management. The mechanism analysis shows that the policy’s enhancement of the effectiveness of external regulation by regulators and the media played an important role in curbing firms’ earnings management activities. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the inhibitory effect of mandatory CSR disclosure policy on firms’ earnings management activities is better in firms with lower analyst coverage and lower institutional ownership. The study further extends the mechanism of the impact of mandatory CSR disclosure on firms’ earnings management activities, and provides practical guidance on how to improve the quality of firms’ earnings management and enhance the efficiency of corporate governance.

Does CSR Information Disclosure Improve Investment Efficiency? The Moderating Role of Analyst Attention

Since 2009, the China Securities Regulatory Commission has begun to require listed firms on the specified boards to disclose their corporate social responsibility and encouraged others to report corporate social responsibility voluntarily. Based on the data of domestic A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2019, this paper studies the relationship between corporate social responsibility information disclosure and corporate investment efficiency and the role of analysts in moderating the relationship. The empirical results show that the social responsibility information disclosed under China’s mandatory guidance has a positive effect on alleviating information asymmetry and improving investment efficiency, and this role becomes even more crucial when the external information environment fails to meet market demands. Overall, our findings suggest the important role of corporate social responsibility information disclosure in guiding investment behavior and improving investment efficiency, especially for those companies with low analyst attention. This article expands the research perspective on social responsibility information disclosure and investment efficiency. Furthermore, our research contributes to promoting corporate social responsibility and facilitating sustainable development.

Corporate Social Responsibility Information Disclosure and Financial Performance: Is Green Technology Innovation a Missing Link?

Corporate social responsibility information disclosure integrates environmental and social practices to achieve sustainable development. Some studies have pointed out that promoting green technology innovation is essential for energy-intensive firms. Therefore, exploring the relationship between energy-intensive environmental information disclosure and green technology innovation and financial performance is essential. According to the generalized least squares with fixed model analysis results based on energy-intensive industry firms, the research findings are as follows: firstly, the disclosure information of corporate social responsibility has a significant effect on enterprises’ ROA. Secondly, there is a positive relationship between the shareholder responsibility score and employee responsibility score of information disclosure with financial performance. Thirdly, there is a significant positive correlation between the environmental responsibility score of CSR information disclosure with green technology innovation. Fourthly, green innovation is mediating in energy-intensive enterprises’ CSR information disclosure and financial performance. Lastly, combined with the theoretical and findings, we put forward the management implications and policy suggestions.

Presentation of social responsibility reports and the stock price crash risk

This study explores the relationship between the presentation forms of CSR reports and the stock price crash risk. It is found that the higher the proportion of image area and richer the color of CSR reports, the higher the future stock price crash risk. CSR reports presentation form affects the stock price crash risk through stock liquidity and investors' expectations of the company's future performance. These results indicate that presentation format in social responsibility information disclosure is mainly one of the tools used to build a positive corporate image.

Evaluation Study on the Level of Social Responsibility Accounting Disclosure of Huaxi Biologicals

Enterprises in the development process should not only be committed to the development of business activities, but also must take up the huge impact on the social economy and nature produced with the development and growth of the company, and assume responsibility for society. This paper takes Huaxi Biological as the research object, analyzes the form and content of the disclosure of corporate social responsibility information in the medical industry based on the table of corporate social responsibility information scoring system of the medical industry, and finds that there are problems such as the lack of indicators, unbalanced disclosure, and incompleteness of Huaxi Biological's CSR report, etc. Finally, this paper puts forward suggestions from the three levels of the disclosure system, indicators, and regulation with the aim of promoting China's medical industry social responsibility disclosure's overall sustainable development.

Quality of Mandatory Social Responsibility Disclosure and Total Factor Productivity of Enterprises: Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

This study attempts to determine whether improving the quality of mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosure can have a positive impact on a firm’s development. To this end, an empirical analysis is conducted to establish a relationship between the quality of mandatory CSR information disclosure and a firm’s total factor productivity (TFP), using data from A-share listed companies in China over the period 2009–2020. The results show that: (1) Improving the quality of mandatory CSR disclosure leads to a significant increase in a firm’s TFP. (2) By alleviating a firm’s financing constraints and agency costs, the improved quality of mandatory CSR disclosure effectively enhances the firm’s investment efficiency and innovation capacity, leading to higher TFP. This research extends the influence of CSR disclosure on the economic development outcomes of Chinese firms, and provides theoretical guidance for the development and improvement of CSR disclosure mechanisms in emerging economies.

Does Socially Responsible Investing Make a Better Society?—A Micro Perspective through Mutual Funds and Their Investee Companies

Socially responsible investing (SRI) aims to guide corporate behavior through investing and thus to make a better society since its debut. From a micro perspective, this study aims to empirically examine whether the propensity for SRI of mutual funds promotes the corporate social performance (CSP) of investee companies and to determine what are the mechanisms under this promotion effect and under what circumstances this promotion effect gets stronger. After our main analysis confirms the promotion effect in China, our mechanism analysis shows the following: mutual funds with a high propensity for SRI promote investee CSP, because they promote internal control and demand better disclosure of social responsibility information; the promotion effect of mutual funds as shareholders from within a company can substitute for the effects of a good external environment such as a highly marketized region or a competitive industry. Our heterogeneity analysis further shows that the promotion effect is stronger in state-owned enterprises, where corporate executives are more willing to accept suggestions related to social responsibility and in a good social trust atmosphere, which sheds light on shareholder activism in private and informal manners.

RESEARCH ON THE INFLUENCE OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY INFORMATION DISCLOSURE QUALITY ON CORPORATE PERFORMANCE

Due to the poor quality of social responsibility information disclosure of Chinese enterprises, coupled with the impact of the spread of COVID-19, the uncertainty of the global economic environment and economic policies has increased significantly, and the development of Chinese enterprises is facing unprecedented challenges.Based on the sample of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2019, this study examined the impact of the quality of social responsibility information disclosure on corporate performance and the moderating role of economic policy uncertainty. Research shows that enterprises can improve corporate performance by disclosing high-quality social responsibility information.With the increasing of economic policies uncertainty, enterprises should disclose high-quality social responsibility information that will help enterprises improve their performance in the uncertain economic situation.

Corporate Social Responsibility And Financial Performance: An Empirical Study On Vietnam Commercial Banks

This paper examines corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosure and the one-way impact of CSR on financial performance described by the net interest margin (NIM) of the Vietnamese commercial banks between 2012 and 2019. The sample was selected in 29 commercial banks with 232 observations. The generalized method of moments (GMM) was used in this research. The finding shows that the employee responsibility index has the highest disclosure rate, while the environmental responsibility is the lowest. Comparing the level of CSR disclosure among the groups in the sample, the finding also shows that the State group has a higher disclosure rate than the non-State group. Furthermore, the GMM estimation results positively impact NIM's total CSR and environmental responsibility indexes.

Status Quo and Improvement Path of Social Responsibility Information Disclosure in Corporate Development Management

Fundamental is a sound social responsibility information disclosure mechanism to prosper large-scale businesses. This paper dissected the correction between Fosun Pharma s performance of corporate social responsibility and its advances, as corporate social responsibility now has jostled for public attention at home and abroad. Efforts were invested in analyzing the disclosure of social responsibility accounting information by the representative Fosun Pharma on the basis of the theory of corporate social responsibility and stakeholder theory. The company failed to prepare a well-functioning strategic CSR in the process of fulfilling its social responsibility, and showed certain deficiencies such as insufficient disclosure of social responsibility quantitative information, delayed disclose of negative information, onefold disclosure form, and defective control environment, revealed the investigation. Meanwhile, it suggested that progress should be made in cultivating the awareness of corporate social responsibility information disclosure, quantifying indicators as much as possible, enriching information disclosure form, and shaping a good control environment for social responsibility performance. This research not only enriches the research literature on the relationship between CSR and corporate development, but enlarges the variable scope of corporate social responsibility, which is of certain practical significance for corporate development management and the establishment of a sound social responsibility management mechanism.

Research on the impact of corporate social responsibility information disclosure and corporate innovation in China

China started to implement a new system in 2008, asking fractional companies to make public their corporate social responsibility information disclosure. The financial and corporate governance data of Chinese A-share listed businesses from 2007 to 2016 was gathered in order to determine any potential relationships between the mandated corporate social responsibility disclosure system and company patents. According to the two opposite hypotheses of the information hypothesis and reputation hypothesis, the results show that the number of patents of companies surveyed has increased significantly after the implement of the policy of mandatory CSR disclosure. Additionally, after companys patents are separated into invention type patents and utility models, industrial design (non-invention type) patents, invention type patents significantly increase in comparison. This means that the information hypothesis has been supported more. CSR disclosure can effectively alleviate the information asymmetry existed in the internal of the enterprise, increase shareholders confidence, and reduce the problems of corporate financial restrictions. Several robustness tests have proved that the model and conclusions are both steady. This may provide a reference for the government to improve the mandatory disclosure policy further and help improve the capital market development in China.