IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v65y2025i4p3763-3780.html

When Corporate Social Responsibility Disappoints: The Hidden Cost of CSR Expectation Gaps in Audit Fees

Author

Listed:
  • Qianhua Lei
  • Wei Qiao
  • Guilong Cai

Abstract

This paper examines how auditors respond to the expectation gaps of a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR). We find that auditors charge higher audit fees for firms with wider CSR expectation gaps, reflecting the hidden cost of failing to meet the CSR aspiration level. The mechanism analysis shows that CSR expectation gaps increase audit fees due to increased operating risks. Besides, we find that the COVID‐19 pandemic and intense industry competition positively moderate the relationship between CSR expectation gaps and audit fees. Overall, our findings underscore the latent perils associated with CSR performance when assessed from a comparative standpoint.

Suggested Citation

  • Qianhua Lei & Wei Qiao & Guilong Cai, 2025. "When Corporate Social Responsibility Disappoints: The Hidden Cost of CSR Expectation Gaps in Audit Fees," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 65(4), pages 3763-3780, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:65:y:2025:i:4:p:3763-3780
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.70094
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.70094
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/acfi.70094?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    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:bla:acctfi:v:65:y:2025:i:4:p:3763-3780. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.html .

    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.