Are Socially Responsible Companies Really Ethical? The Moderating Role of State-Owned Enterprises: Evidence from China

Abstract

The present research aims to explore the relationship between corporate social responsibility and earnings management (EM). For this study, we utilized the panel data of companies registered with the Shanghai and the Shenzhen stock exchanges. The data consists of 10years of financial data from 2010 to 2019. After a thorough investigation, we discovered that CSR hurts the EM practice, which mainly relates to the prevalence of the ethical stance and the moral stance in corporate decision-making. When firms engage in activities about CSR, they tend to improve their corporate image and their social image as the stakeholder satisfaction level increases. The results also indicate that, when firms engage in these types of activities, they tend to incorporate practices related to CSR as part of their corporate strategy. This also results in a higher moral standing amongst the decision-makers, and they prefer to reject malpractices, such as EM, as a result. In the case of the Chinese state-owned firms, the results indicate that these companies increasingly engage in real earnings management (REM), even though they have increased their CSR activities. The results point towards management opportunism with Chinese state-owned companies.

Do Board Gender Diversity and Non-Executive Directors Affect CSR Reporting? Insight from Agency Theory Perspective

“…At the same time, the companies which engage in charity are more likely to have higher levels of social and environmental activities [57,69]. Panwar and Han [58] hold that female directors are more vigilant and stricter when it comes to issues relating to CSR and environment, and besides, they also act as representatives of the female population as well [51,70]. The inclusion of female directors also embodies the representativeness of women stakeholders in society.…”

The Role of CSR and Ethical Leadership to Shape Employees’ Pro-Environmental Behavior in the Era of Industry 4.0. A Case of the Banking Sector

“…In this regard, most of the banking sector of Pakistan spends its CSR funds for philanthropic purposes, for example, the supporting of community education, the installment of water filtration plants, and other charity-related causes for the community. However, improving the environment through different interventions of CSR is something that is least considered by this sector [86,88,[146][147][148][149]. The current study in this regard provides fresh insight to the banking policymakers in improving the environment through CSR activities.…”

“…Various researchers have argued about the direct association of CSR and ethical leadership [82][83][84]. To conclude, CSR as a business system can generate real returns for all stakeholders by implementing ethical values and sustainable work practices in an organization [85][86][87][88]. This notion of a socially responsible organization which works in the larger interest of society and the environment is transmitted to the corporate leaders and they, in turn, learn this ethical behavior on their part.…”

Corporate Social Responsibility and the Renewable Energy Development in the Baltic States

“…In general terms, Corporate Social Responsibility is the constantly altering and selfadvancing concept in the field of business management [40][41][42]. Today, CSR has become a standard management concept in which companies assume their ethical, social and environmental responsibility toward society [43,44]. A value-driven model aligns strategic CSR with environmental management and stakeholder approaches to achieve long-term corporate sustainability in terms of corporate economic performance and social outcomes of corporate responsibility [45,46].…”