IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jocaae/v16y2020i3s1815566920300266.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social trust environment and tunneling

Author

Listed:
  • Chen, Shihua
  • Han, Xu
  • Jebran, Khalil

Abstract

We show how social trust environment influences tunneling. Using social norm theory, we argue that a high social trust environment mitigates unethical behavior from controlling shareholders and reduces tunneling. We further assume that the association between social trust and tunneling is weaker for enterprises controlled by the state and for those located in regions of high legal development. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2003 to 2016, we find supportive evidence for our hypotheses. Similar conclusions were obtained with alternative measures, endogeneity corrections, and additional analyses. Our findings suggest that as a social norm, social trust can serve as an alternative mechanism for reducing agency problems in an emerging economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Shihua & Han, Xu & Jebran, Khalil, 2020. "Social trust environment and tunneling," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jocaae:v:16:y:2020:i:3:s1815566920300266
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcae.2020.100212
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1815566920300266
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcae.2020.100212?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amit, Raphael & Ding, Yuan & Villalonga, Belén & Zhang, Hua, 2015. "The role of institutional development in the prevalence and performance of entrepreneur and family-controlled firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 284-305.
    2. Pevzner, Mikhail & Xie, Fei & Xin, Xiangang, 2015. "When firms talk, do investors listen? The role of trust in stock market reactions to corporate earnings announcements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 190-223.
    3. Allen, Franklin & Qian, Jun & Qian, Meijun, 2005. "Law, finance, and economic growth in China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 57-116, July.
    4. Jebran, Khalil & Chen, Shihua & Tauni, Muhammad Zubair, 2019. "Principal-principal conflicts and corporate cash holdings: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 55-70.
    5. Bai, Chong-En & Liu, Qiao & Lu, Joe & Song, Frank M. & Zhang, Junxi, 2004. "Corporate governance and market valuation in China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 599-616, December.
    6. La Porta, Rafael, et al, 1997. "Trust in Large Organizations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 333-338, May.
    7. Habib, Ahsan & Hasan, Mostafa Monzur, 2017. "Social capital and corporate cash holdings," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 1-20.
    8. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2004. "The Role of Social Capital in Financial Development," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 526-556, June.
    9. Habib, Ahsan & Muhammadi, Abdul Haris & Jiang, Haiyan, 2017. "Political Connections and Related Party Transactions: Evidence from Indonesia," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 45-63.
    10. Jace Garrett & Rani Hoitash & Douglas F. Prawitt, 2014. "Trust and Financial Reporting Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(5), pages 1087-1125, December.
    11. Cheung, Yan-Leung & Rau, P. Raghavendra & Stouraitis, Aris, 2006. "Tunneling, propping, and expropriation: evidence from connected party transactions in Hong Kong," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 343-386, November.
    12. Richardson, Grant & Wang, Bei & Zhang, Xinmin, 2016. "Ownership structure and corporate tax avoidance: Evidence from publicly listed private firms in China," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 141-158.
    13. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2009. "Cultural Biases in Economic Exchange?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1095-1131.
    14. Iris Bohnet & Fiona Greig & Benedikt Herrmann & Richard Zeckhauser, 2008. "Betrayal Aversion: Evidence from Brazil, China, Oman, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(1), pages 294-310, March.
    15. Habib, Ahsan & Muhammadi, Abdul Haris & Jiang, Haiyan, 2017. "Political connections, related party transactions, and auditor choice: Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 1-19.
    16. Huang, Wei & Zhu, Tao, 2015. "Foreign institutional investors and corporate governance in emerging markets: Evidence of a split-share structure reform in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 312-326.
    17. Jebran, Khalil & Chen, Shihua & Ye, Yan & Wang, Chengqi, 2019. "Confucianism and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    18. Jiang, Guohua & Lee, Charles M.C. & Yue, Heng, 2010. "Tunneling through intercorporate loans: The China experience," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 1-20, October.
    19. Sidney John Gray & Tony Kang & Yong Keun Yoo, 2013. "National Culture and International Differences in the Cost of Equity Capital," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 53(6), pages 899-916, December.
    20. Michael N. Young & Mike W. Peng & David Ahlstrom & Garry D. Bruton & Yi Jiang, 2008. "Corporate Governance in Emerging Economies: A Review of the Principal–Principal Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 196-220, January.
    21. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2008. "Trusting the Stock Market," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2557-2600, December.
    22. Claessens, Stijn & Djankov, Simeon & Lang, Larry H. P., 2000. "The separation of ownership and control in East Asian Corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 81-112.
    23. Cullinan, Charles P. & Wang, Fangjun & Wang, Peng & Zhang, Junrui, 2012. "Ownership structure and accounting conservatism in China," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 1-16.
    24. Li, Guoping, 2010. "The pervasiveness and severity of tunneling by controlling shareholders in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 310-323, June.
    25. Wang Dong & Hongling Han & Yun Ke & Kam C. Chan, 2018. "Social Trust and Corporate Misconduct: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 539-562, August.
    26. Ang, James S. & Cheng, Yingmei & Wu, Chaopeng, 2015. "Trust, Investment, and Business Contracting," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(3), pages 569-595, June.
    27. Xingqiang Du & Wei Jian & Shaojuan Lai & Yingjie Du & Hongmei Pei, 2015. "Does Religion Mitigate Earnings Management? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 699-749, October.
    28. Xingqiang Du, 2015. "Does Confucianism Reduce Minority Shareholder Expropriation? Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(4), pages 661-716, December.
    29. Wei Cui, 2017. "Social Trust, Institution, and Economic Growth: Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(6), pages 1243-1261, June.
    30. Cao, Chunfang & Xia, Changyuan & Chan, Kam C., 2016. "Social trust and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 148-165.
    31. Liu, Chunyan & Uchida, Konari & Yang, Yufeng, 2014. "Controlling shareholder, split-share structure reform and cash dividend payments in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 339-357.
    32. Xie, Biao & Davidson, Wallace III & DaDalt, Peter J., 2003. "Earnings management and corporate governance: the role of the board and the audit committee," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 295-316, June.
    33. Vivian W. Fang & Xuan Tian & Sheri Tice, 2014. "Does Stock Liquidity Enhance or Impede Firm Innovation?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(5), pages 2085-2125, October.
    34. Joseph P. H. Fan & T. J. Wong, 2005. "Do External Auditors Perform a Corporate Governance Role in Emerging Markets? Evidence from East Asia," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 35-72, March.
    35. Wu, Wenfeng & Firth, Michael & Rui, Oliver M., 2014. "Trust and the provision of trade credit," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 146-159.
    36. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Yang Ni & Jeffrey Pittman & Samir Saadi, 2012. "Does Religion Matter to Equity Pricing?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(4), pages 491-518, December.
    37. Xingqiang Du, 2014. "Does Religion Mitigate Tunneling? Evidence from Chinese Buddhism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 299-327, December.
    38. Xia, Changyuan & Cao, Chunfang & Chan, Kam C., 2017. "Social trust environment and firm tax avoidance: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 374-392.
    39. Li, Xiaorong & Wang, Steven Shuye & Wang, Xue, 2017. "Trust and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 74-91.
    40. Liang Shao & Chuck C Y Kwok & Ran Zhang, 2013. "National culture and corporate investment," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 44(7), pages 745-763, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ullah, Irfan & Jebran, Khalil & Umar, Muhammad & Bin Yousaf, Umair, 2023. "Chief executive officer trustworthiness and green innovation," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    2. Wang, Lin & Tang, Yingkai & Chen, Yaozhi & Wang, Kun, 2021. "Be a better boss. Employee treatment, trust level and family business innovation: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    3. Ahsan Habib & Mabel D' Costa & Ahmed Khamis Al‐Hadi, 2023. "Consequences of local social norms: A review of the literature in accounting, finance, and corporate governance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 3-45, March.
    4. Gao, Kaijuan & Shen, Yiran & Chan, Kam C., 2021. "Does analyst following restrain tunneling? Evidence from brokerage closures and mergers," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(C).
    5. Jia Li & Zhoutianyang Sun, 2023. "Cost stickiness, earnings forecast accuracy, and the informativeness of stock prices about future earnings: evidence from China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lyu, Xiaoliang & Ma, Jiameng & Zhang, Xiaochen, 2023. "Social trust and corporate innovation: An informal institution perspective," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    2. Su, Kun & Wu, Ji & Lu, Yue, 2022. "With trust we innovate: Evidence from corporate R&D expenditure," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    3. Xia, Changyuan & Cao, Chunfang & Chan, Kam C., 2017. "Social trust environment and firm tax avoidance: Evidence from China," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 374-392.
    4. Kuo, Nan-Ting & Li, Shu & Jin, Zhen, 2023. "Social trust and the demand for audit quality," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Fonseka, Mohan & Samarakoon, Lalith P. & Tian, Gao-Liang & Seng, Ratney, 2021. "The impact of social trust and state ownership on investment efficiency of Chinese firms," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    6. Ahsan Habib & Mabel D' Costa & Ahmed Khamis Al‐Hadi, 2023. "Consequences of local social norms: A review of the literature in accounting, finance, and corporate governance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 3-45, March.
    7. Baoyin Qiu & Junli Yu & Kuo Zhang, 2020. "Trust and Stock Price Synchronicity: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 97-109, November.
    8. Li, Xiaorong & Wang, Steven Shuye & Wang, Xue, 2019. "Trust and IPO underpricing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 224-248.
    9. Dong, Wang & Ke, Yun & Li, Shuo & Chen, Xiangyu & Wan, Peng, 2021. "Does social trust restrain excess perk consumption? Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1078-1092.
    10. Chen, Shihua & Chen, Yulin & Jebran, Khalil, 2021. "Trust and corporate social responsibility: From expected utility and social normative perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 518-530.
    11. Shi, Lisi & Ho, Kung-Cheng & Liu, Ming-Yu, 2023. "Does societal trust make managers more trustworthy?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    12. Gu, Leilei & Liu, Zhongyang & Ma, Sichao & Wang, Hongyu, 2022. "Social trust and corporate financial asset holdings: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    13. Jiang, Fuxiu & Cai, Xinni & Nofsinger, John R. & Zheng, Xiaojia, 2020. "Can reputation concern restrain bad news hoarding in family firms?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    14. Qin, Wei & Liang, Quanxi & Jiao, Yan & Lu, Meiting & Shan, Yaowen, 2022. "Social trust and dividend payouts: Evidence from China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    15. Amore, Mario Daniele & Epure, Mircea, 2021. "Riding out of a financial crisis: The joint effect of trust and corporate ownership," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 92-109.
    16. Jin, Ming & Liu, Jinshan & Chen, Zhongfei, 2022. "Impacts of social trust on corporate leverage: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 505-521.
    17. Jiayi Zheng & Yushu Zhu, 2022. "Chair–CEO trust and firm performance," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 47(1), pages 163-198, February.
    18. Leilei Gu & Jinyu Liu & Yuchao Peng, 2022. "Locality Stereotype, CEO Trustworthiness and Stock Price Crash Risk: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(4), pages 773-797, February.
    19. Cao, Chunfang & Xia, Changyuan & Chan, Kam C., 2016. "Social trust and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 148-165.
    20. Massa, Massimo & li, zhe & xu, niahang & Zhang, Hong, 2016. "The Impact of Sin Culture: Evidence from Earning Management and Alcohol Consumption in China," CEPR Discussion Papers 11475, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    China; Legal development; Social trust; State-owned firms; Tunneling;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jocaae:v:16:y:2020:i:3:s1815566920300266. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-contemporary-accounting-and-economics .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.