Corporate social responsibility reporting and firm performance: evidence from China

A series of product safety and child labor scandals in the mid-2000s aroused global concerns over business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in China. The general public expects companies to be socially responsible and to look beyond the maximizing of profits. In this study, we examine the relationship between the issuance of CSR reports and performance, in terms of accounting income, market return, and growth by firms listed in China in 2008–2009. We find that the historical performance of firms has significant and positive effects on the issuance of standalone CSR reports. There is also a positive correlation between current CSR disclosures and subsequent performance. Finally, we find that corporate donations are positively associated with improved performance in the following year. Our results support the view that CSR is a useful business strategy even in a developing country such as China. We call for government authorities in emerging markets to advocate CSR practices and for the market participants to change their perception of and attitude towards CSR.     

Corporate social responsibility disclosure and information asymmetry: the role of family ownership

This study considers the moderating role of family ownership, taking into account information differences between family and minority investors, and corroborates the existence of a two-way relation between CSR disclosure and information asymmetry. Our analysis of international corporate financial data for the period 2003–2009 shows there is an adverse selection effect by which family owners take advantage of insider information, thus attenuating any reduction of information asymmetry achieved by CSR disclosure.     

社会责任强制披露下管理层机会主义行为考察——基于 A 股上市公司的经验证据

企业社会责任披露的经济后果一直是近年来理论界研究的焦点.在强制性披露社会责任报告的上市公司中, 管理层对社会责任报告第三方鉴证的自愿选择权反映其机会主义动机, 本文尝试切入企业违规风险的视野, 考察管理层机会主义行为的经济后果.研究结果表明, 从影响效应看, 社会责任强制披露与企业未来期违规风险呈现出显著正相关关系, 进一步分析表明, 在未进行第三方鉴证的公司中, 社会责任强制披露与企业未来期违规风险呈显著正相关, 而在自愿进行第三方鉴证的公司中两者间不相关.从作用机理看, 社会责任披露对企业未来期违规风险的影响渠道主要来自于管理层代理成本, 而不是大股东代理成本和信息环境.从治理因素看, 内部控制质量和机构投资者持股比例均未对上述管理层机会主义行为形成显著的治理监督效应.本文在理论上为社会责任强制披露的经济后果提供了直接的证据支持, 在实践上为监管部门优化社会责任强制披露以及鼓励社会责任报告第三方鉴证等制度安排提供了重要的决策依据.     

Corporate and managerial characteristics as drivers of social responsibility disclosure by state-owned enterprises

The public administration sector, including state owned enterprises (SOEs), has developed various types of information disclosure practice, in response to stakeholders’ demands, in parallel with developments in the private sector. This paper analyses the corporate social responsibility (CSR) information disclosed by SOEs and the influence exerted by the characteristics of the SOEs themselves (size, industry sector, degree of government ownership and number of years in operation) and by those of their managers (age, gender, CSR education profile and CSR responsibilities in the workplace). To do so, an index of CSR information disclosure was created, based on the responses made to a questionnaire in this respect. An empirical regression model was then applied to test and categorise the factors analysed. According to the results obtained, the size and sector of the SOE, together with the manager’s CSR responsibilities, are the factors that most significantly affect the online disclosure of CSR information.     

产品市场竞争优势、资本结构与商业信用支持——基于中国上市公司的实证研究

以2005年-2013年中国上市公司为样本,探讨产品市场竞争优势的含义及度量方法,产品市场竞争优势对企业资本结构与商业信用支持的影响,以及宏观、行业和微观因素如何发挥调节作用.研究发现:第一,产品市场竞争优势有助于降低企业的负债水平,并刺激企业对上下游企业提供更多的商业信用支持;第二,在经济越发达的地区、竞争强度越弱的行业,以及民营控股上市公司中,产品市场竞争优势会进一步降低企业的负债水平,同时加强其对上下游企业的商业信用支持.研究结论为从理论上更加全面和准确地理解产品市场竞争优势与企业资本结构和商业信用支持的关系提供了新的科学依据.     

Corporate social responsibility and governance

Journal of Management and Governance -     

Correction to: Corporate social responsibility and governance

Journal of Management and Governance - The original version of this article contained a mistake. The list of the authors was incorrect. The authors of this article are: Jean-Michel Sahut, Marta...     

Corporate social responsibility: the organizational view

Designing strategies for corporate social responsibility (CSR)-practice nowadays has become essential for organizations. Notwithstanding, how organizations appear internally in a socially responsible context toward their employees has been insufficiently investigated. This study aims at ascertaining how Internal CSR can be conceptualized as well as how it affects employees’ commitment. To do so, the manifestations of Internal CSR are discussed based on social identity theory and further literature, while the developed research model is checked for suitability through a survey generating 2081 employee responses from an international pharmaceutical company. As one result, it can be stated that the factors proposed to constitute Internal CSR are confirmed. Further, the findings entail the following conclusions: Internal CSR has a notable influence on employees’ Affective Organizational Commitment whilst relatively moderate impacting Normative Organizational Commitment. Additionally, Affective Organizational Commitment adopts a mediating function regarding Normative Organizational Commitment.     

Corporate planning for social responsibility

From his position as Senior Chaplain of a team of Industrial Chaplains, working in industry yet not part of it, the author probes the necessity for a global perspective as a setting for all decisions. The multi-national family of man with limited resources provides the context for multi-national planning and for corporate strategies. We need an ethic for society so that ethical considerations are seen to be pertinent to relationships between nations as well as relations between individuals. This paper suggests a simple model of the ethical dimensions of a global village, which will enable us to see the world perspective while operating at the corporate level and with immediate responsibilities that seem limited but are extensive.     

Corporate governance and IPO underpricing: evidence from the italian market

Journal of Management and Governance - This paper aims to analyse the impact of firms’ corporate governance characteristics on the degree of first-day returns (i.e., underpricing) in the...     

A study of the determinants of environmental disclosure quality: evidence from French listed companies

Journal of Management and Governance - We examine the impact of various factors on the quality of environmental disclosure. Combining multi-theories in a unique framework, it focuses on factors...     

Corporate governance and corporate social responsibility: lessons from the land of OZ

Australia corporate boards and senior management have been spirited from the Land of Milk and Honey (profit) to the Land of OZ. They are to embark on a journey, following the “yellow-brick road”, a proverbial path to a promised land of one’s hopes and dreams, in order to find brains, a heart and courage. The effect of new regulations introduced in Australia to curtail corporate misbehaviour is detailed by storytelling. The Wizard of OZ is the title of a story written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1899. In 1939, Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios made a movie of the story. I have used The Wizard of Oz to argue that corporate boards and senior management need to make decisions using a balance of intellect (brains), emotionality (heart), and a sense of purpose (courage). The inspiration for using Baum’s story, as an analogy for the transformation needed in corporate boards and senior management, comes from Biberman and Whitty (Journal of Organisational Change Management 10(2):130–188, 1997). This research is based on interviews with Board members and non-executive directors from five companies listed in the Business Review Weekly (BRW) Top Twenty-five Companies in Australia (2007) and a range of secondary data sources. The financial and reputational success of the organisation and its members is out of balance with the human and social costs and benefits. Respondents confirmed that board members and senior management should willingly provide information about the corporation and its activities to its stakeholders, that information and data should be transparent, the true extent of director remuneration should be revealed and that financial reporting should be true and accurate. Board members and senior management can be assisted to operate in a way that observes socially responsible values and balances the obligation for profit maximisation with corporate social responsibilities (CSR). This study provides steps that organisations can take to achieve a balance of intellect, emotionality and sense of purpose and therefore realise their corporate social responsibility. The results of this empirical and secondary research suggest a method that may be used to make board members and senior managers more aware of their corporate social responsibilities and curtail corporate misbehaviour where the introduction of a range of new regulations has had little effect.     

Corporate boards, audit committees and voluntary disclosure: evidence from Italian Listed Companies

This paper investigates the interplay between governance and disclosure in an agency setting, featured by concentrated ownership and high insider shareholders representation in the board. In this context, agency conflicts happen between large controlling shareholders and minority outside investors, with risks of private benefits exploitation. We regressed a voluntary disclosure index on seven governance variables related either to the board structure and functioning. The empirical evidence is provided by the Italian stock market. Our results suggest the presence of a complementary relationship between governance and disclosure. Diligent monitoring activity is associated with greater transparency to the outside. The findings are consistent with the view that internal and external control tend to be present at the same time, since the presence of one of them reduces the incentive for the controlling shareholders to limit the other. The empirical evidence also show that larger boards are not detrimental to outside shareholders, with regard to voluntary disclosure. The study can contribute to the understanding of the relationship between governance and disclosure in a particular agency setting. They might be of interest to practitioners and regulators, insofar as they are consistent with calls for more disclosure requirements in this agency setting.     

资本结构与员工劳动生产率

债务作为重要的公司治理手段,可以降低企业、管理层与员工之间的委托代理成本,提高员工劳动生产率.同时,债务水平上升将提高企业破产风险,对企业和员工的人力资本投入与员工劳动生产率可能产生不利影响.以我国1999年一2014年工业企业上市公司为样本,本文不同佑计方法的实证结果均表明企业的债务水平越高,员工劳动生产率越低.在其他因素不变的情况下,企业的财务困境加剧了债务对员工劳动生产率的不利影响;债务对员工劳动生产率的负作用在人力资本依赖度高的公司以及在外部就业环境好的地区更加显著.对于债务与员工劳动生产率作用的中介效应分析与分位数回归结果也说明债务上升可能导致企业人力资本投资下降,对员工劳动生产率产生不利影响.研究为我国“去杠杆”经济政策提供了微观企业层面的经验证据.     

Corporate social responsibility recognition and support for the arts: Evidence from European financial institutions

This research investigates whether financial institutions that have gained a good reputation in relation to their CSR activities also engage in significant corporate support for the arts (CSA). Using a sample composed of the 42 largest listed European financial institutions, data from 2004 to 2013 (i.e., 420 firm-year observations) and manually collected CSA disclosure information, our findings indicate that entities rewarded for their CSR initiatives are also those that engage in significant CSA. We also find that CSA disclosure reported in the social reports of financial institutions is a predictor for the attainment of a CSR award, whereas that reported in annual reports is not. Our findings suggest that annual and social reports have a different informative relevance, at least in relation to CSR initiatives in the form of CSA, for the stakeholders of financial institutions. Thus, our results provide useful insights for companies’ communication strategies showing, for example, that social reports are the best channel to communicate about CSA.     

Corporate social responsibility: a strategic and profitable response to entry?

This paper investigates whether an incumbent has an incentive to introduce corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities only as a response to entry by a competitor, i.e., the incumbent would eschew CSR if left uncontested. We assume that the entrant cannot provide CSR at least at the outset for two reasons: (1) it would not be credible due to its lack of recognition and (2) due to high fixed cost to pay e.g., for licensing. More precisely, this paper shows that monopolistic firms can have indeed the incentive to introduce CSR activities only as a response to entry. Therefore, increased competition can turn a firm “green”, providing a “win–win” for business as well as for the environment.     

Corporate social responsibility: an assessment of the enlightened self-interest model

Much recent discussion of corporate social responsibility has concerned operationality. Many activities subsumed under corporate social responsibility can be shown to be public or partially public goods. The theory of public goods can clarify and explain some complex problems of operationalizing the social responsibility doctrine. An examination of philanthropy provides some behavioral applications.     

Corporate social responsibility as a source of employee satisfaction

Corporate social responsibility has received an increasing amount of attention from practitioners and scholars alike in recent years. However, very little is known about whether or how corporate social responsibility affects employees. Because employees are primary stakeholders who directly contribute to the success of the company, understanding employee reactions to corporate social responsibility may help answer lingering questions about the potential effects of corporate social responsibility on firms as well as illuminate some of the processes responsible for them. To begin our chapter, we provide a brief history of scholarship on corporate social responsibility and highlight some of the major challenges researchers in this area currently face. We then discuss why corporate social responsibility may represent a special opportunity to influence employees’ general impression of their company. Next, we identify four distinct paths through which corporate social responsibility may affect employees’ relationship with their company that correspond to four universal psychological needs: security, self-esteem, belongingness, and a meaningful existence. Finally, we offer an agenda for micro-level research on corporate social responsibility.     

Corporate governance and market performance of parent firms following equity carve-out announcements

Using the Gompers, Ishii, and Metrick corporate governance index on a sample of 158 parent firms, this study demonstrates that firms with a superior governance rating have a higher short-term market reaction to carve-out announcements relative to firms with an inferior governance rating. Although the data supports previous evidence regarding negative long-term market reaction that parent firms typically experience following equity carve-outs, the results show that well-governed firms marginally outperform others. The findings also confirm that the dynamic effects related to improvements in corporate governance positively affect the long-term market outcome of parent firms; this relation is more significant in well-governed parent firms. Finally, the study shows evidence that corporate governance helps mitigate the agency problems related to the financing hypothesis, which results in better short and long-term market reactions following carve-out announcements.